A Soil Health Card (SHC) for soil quality monitoring of agricultural lands in south-eastern coastal region of Bangladesh

Abstract

Background: The present study introduces an alternate tool of laboratory analysis named Soil Health Card (SHC) for soil quality monitoring and routine field observations by farmers. Results: Different physicochemical and nutrient contents of soil, i.e. pH, electric conductivity, soil organic matter, organic carbon, total nitrogen, phosphorous, sulfur and boron were assessed by laboratory analysis collected from the different fields of Noakhali district of Bangladesh. These parameters were scored according to the soil fertility standards according to Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council. Results found that, the soil quality of all the studied fields are medium category. Again, a SHC was prepared using soil structure, subsurface compaction, aggregate stability, status of ground cover, soil smell, soil pH, color, organic matter content, drainage capacity, diversity of micro-life, earthworm contents, infiltration rate, soil aeration, crop coverage and leaf color. The result of SHC is interestingly similar to the laboratory experiment results. Conclusions: Analyzing these two methods it was found that, the SHC is truly representative, much convenient, precise, coast effective and easily understandable to the marginal farmers. However, SHC can be an alternative to farmer for sustainable farm management.