ASSESSING VERTICAL HETEROGENEITY OF SOIL PROPERTIES AND NUTRIENT AVAILABILITY IN TWO DISTINCT LANDFORMS OF DHENKANAL DISTRICT, ODISHA, INDIA

An inventory work was carried out to evaluate the vertical distribution of available plant nutrients status at the Odapada block of Dhenkanal district located in the Mid-Central Tableland Agro-climatic Zone of Odisha.In this context, two pedons situated in two different land types (upland and lowland) were selected for studying the depth-wise vertical distribution of plant nutrients.Genetic horizon-wise soil samples were collected, processed and analyzed for different soil properties viz.textural class, bulk density, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), soil organic carbon (SOC), available nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), sulphur (S), and boron (B) contents.The results indicated that there was a gradual decrease in the concentration of SOC, available N, P and K with soil depth.Whereas soil reaction (pH) and EC content increased with soil depth.Therefore, surface soils were observed to be more fertile but slightly acidic, whereas the sub-soils were of higher pH and less available nutrients.The soluble S content in all the horizons was below the critical limit (<10 mg/kg) for crop production.The soluble boron content of the surface horizon of both the pedons was above the critical limit (> 0.5 mg/kg) for crop production.Since the concentration of all the available nutrients decreased in the subsoils, 25% more than the recommended doses are recommended for growing deep-rooted crops.The findings of this study will be helpful for the scientific as well as the farming community for up taking suitable crop and land use plans for sustainable agricultural and land use management.