Soil Fertility and Salinity Status of Muzaffargarh District, Punjab Pakistan

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to check the soil fertility and salinity status. For this purpose, a total of 3325 soil samples, collected from all tehsils of Muzffargarh district (from tehsil Muzaffargarh, Jatoi, Kot Addu and Ali Pur), were tested in the Soil and Water Testing Laboratory, Cane Development Cell, Fatima Sugar Mills, Muzaffargarh, Pakistan from 2012 to 2014. Samples were analyzed for soil reaction (pH1:10), electrical conductivity (EC1:10), soil organic matter (SOM), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) and plant available phosphorus (Olsen-P). The results revealed that pH ranged between 8.5-9.0 in 75 percent of the samples while about 95 percent were normal with respect to salinity(EC < 4 dS/m) and 74 percent were not affected by sodicity (SAR < 15). Soils were poor in organic matter (92 percent samples had less than 0.80 percent OM) and available phosphorus (95 percent samples had less than 15 mg P/kg soil).