Spatial assessment of soil quality in an agriculturally intensive agro-industrial region of Baghpat District, Uttar Pradesh, India

Soil quality is one of several critical components necessary for sustainable food production and long-term food security. This is especially true for areas undergoing rapid increases in agriculture and agro-industry. This paper assesses the soil quality of the Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh, India, the district with the most dominant agriculture, and examines the spatial distribution of soil physicochemical properties, soil micronutrients, and soil quality changes. As varied land use affects soil quality, ten representative sampling sites were chosen from industrial, agricultural, and communal land use soil types. The present study sampled soils from the ten sites on a quarterly basis from October 2023 until September 2024, for a total of 40 samples. The following soil quality indicators – pH, moisture content, organic carbon, and nutrients (i.e. calcium, sulphur, manganese, iron, copper, and zinc) – were analysed during the study. The data showed that soil characteristics studied heterogeneous patterns, with the soil characteristics varying as the impacts of land uses, agrochemicals, and localized industry and soil characteristics. Study sites had soil pH levels that varied from 6.56 to 7.14. This means that all the study sites had neutral to alkaline soil pH, the soil condition favors the presence and movement (availability and mobility) of essential macronutrients and micronutrients. The difference in the availability of the nutrients at the studied sites (where there is an industrial site) and the control site (where there is no industrial site) is from the influence of man-made activities (urban industrial) and industrial emissions, and also from the geogenic processes that control soil mineral content. This study also helps explain the interaction of natural soil formation processes and the impacts from man-made activities to end result of varying soil quality characteristics in cultivated and intensively utilized soil. This research will be valuable for those who require information for soil management, specifically soil conservation for even the future provision of nutrients for the soil for the long term positive aspect of the soil. This will assist decision and policy makers at all levels, environmental management, scientist in agriculture combining to allow the better land use, the better nutrient management, and the proper selection of improved cultivated plant varieties to soil conditions when all of the concerns are included in the integrative approach, the agricultural production will be increased and the preservation of the ecosystem will be improved.