Interlinking soil, water and plant health status of mango orchards ofRamanagara and Srinivaspura regions for higher productivity

Interrelationship among soil, water and plant health and its influence on crop productivity of mango was investigated Soil, water and plant samples from mango orchards of Ramanagara and Srinivaspura areas of Karnataka, India were collected and analyzed. Soil quality (SQI), water quality (WQI) and plant health (PHI) indices were calculated adopting scoring procedure and interrelated. Few soils were eficient in organic C, available N, K, S, and Fe. Irrigation water of few samples had slightly higher bicarbonate, Cl- and sodium hazards. Most of the leaf samples had very less N and K contents. Soil quality and plant health status of study area were moderately poor to good and irrigation water quality was medium to very good. There was significant positive correlation existed between SQI and PHI, SQI and yield and PHI and yield. However, WQI did not show any significant relationship with SQI, PHI and yield. These results confirmed that soil health influences plant health and crop productivity. Therefore, maintenance of soil health through good cultivation practices is important to enhance plant health and mango productivity.