Feasibility of Adapting Soil Quality Assessment Model for Estimation of Rice Productivity in Paddy Field

Abstract

Soil security has been awarded in national wide because of food security. In order to evaluate soil security, soil quality needs to be assessed utilizing various soil properties. The main purpose of this research was to develop a protocol for soil quality assessment in paddy field and to evaluate correlation between soil quality and rice production in paddy field. Principle component analysis (PCA) was used to select minimum data set (MDS) and soil pH, cation exchange capacity (CEC), soil organic matter (SOM), and available phosphorus (Av. P2O5) was chosen as MDS. Based on database of soil properties, optimized soil quality model was determined. Average soil quality index in paddy field at the period of 1999 - 2015 was 0.35 - 0.50 and soil pH and SOM were high in soil quality index while CEC and Av. P2O5 were low. Correlation analysis showed a high correlation between soil quality index and rice production indicating that developed soil quality assessment tool in this study is suitable for predicting crop productivity. Overall, soil security can be obtained by conserving soil quality and soil properties in agricultural field.