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Project Details:
Methodology
Objectives
Justification
The idea of the project is to range over the main soil-climatic areas and economically important crops in the country.
For the soil test survey a summary and evaluation of the existing data of last two national soil test surveys plus more localized surveys done more recently are foreseen. The sites and regions where so far no data are available would be completed. On that base a data pool on regional basis about soil fertility and nutrient status will be created.
It is difficult in advance to estimate the volume of the available soil test information for the whole country. In order to have actual information, a quotation for soil nutrient monitoring will be singled out. For that purpose a determination of a transekt, covering the representative for the country soil taxons is foreseen. The selected approach considers the circumstance that in the direction from North to South the most pedo climatic changes in the country are covered. Two of the regions - Veliko Tarnovo and Stara Zagora are settled in direction from North to South and covered the most of the important for the agriculture soil taxon. For that reason and in order to decrease the expenses it is assessed that both regions are very suitable for concentrating the main activity of the project. Likewise those are the regions with the most soil test surveys data and cadastre maps saved. In order to cover the climatic divergences, regions in North-West, South-West and Black Sea parts of the country will be included. Depending on the available information and the budget resources the whole arable area could be covered during the first or second year. On the basis of the past and actualized information the soil nutrient status on different level will be evaluated. Benchmarks and emphasis on specific nutrients for specific areas through consideration of soil classification or parent materials could be outlined. The soil test information will be connected to the soil survey GIS.
The work in the area of soil fertility and response research will start with summarizing past relevant soil fertility research in systematic way and the existing crop nutrient uptake/removal information for major target crops and defining the information gaps. The past achievements will be a base for further development of crop nutrient management system in the agriculture.
Soil fertility research will be focused on the most economically important arable and horticulture crops – wheat, barley, maize, sunflower, oilseed rape, potatoes, tomatoes, pepper, apricots, peaches, chokeberries and vines. The proposal for the field omission plot trials (N, P, K, NP, NK, PK, NPK, NPKMg) carried out under typical soil and climate conditions in traditional for the experimental crops regions is as follow:
| Crop | Soils
FAO-Unesco, 1997 | Regions | No of experiments |
| Wheat | Verti-luvic Chernozems, fine
Calcic or Eutric Vertisols
Calcic or Eutric Vertisols | North-West Bulgaria (Vidin)
North-East Bulgaria (Dobrich)
South – East (Burgas)
South - Central Bulgaria (Stara Zagora) | 4 |
| Barley | Verti-luvic Chernozems, fine
Calcic or Eutric Vertisols
Calcic or Eutric Vertisols | North-West Bulgaria (Vidin)
North-East Bulgaria (Dobrich)
South – East (Burgas)
South - Central Bulgaria (Stara Zagora) | 4 |
| Maize | Verti-luvic Chernozems, fine
Calcic or Eutric Vertisols
Calcic or Eutric Vertisols | North-West Bulgaria (Vidin)
North-East Bulgaria (Dobrich)
South – East (Burgas)
South - Central Bulgaria (Stara Zagora) | 4 |
| Sunflower | Verti-luvic Chernozems, fine
Calcic and Eutric Vertisols
Calcic and Eutric Vertisols | North-West Bulgaria (Vidin)
North-East Bulgaria (Dobrich)
South – East (Burgas)
South – Central Bulgaria (Stara Zagora) | 2 |
| Oilseed rape | Verti-luvic Chernozems, fine
Calcic or Eutric Vertisols
Calcic or Eutric Vertisols | North-West Bulgaria (Vidin)
North-East Bulgaria (Dobrich)
South – East (Burgas)
South - Central Bulgaria (Stara Zagora) | 2 |
| Potatoes | Åutric Cambisols–coarse
Dysric Cambisols–coarse | Samokov (Sofia region)
Smolian (Smolyan region) | 2 |
| Tomatoes | Dysric or Eutric Regosols–FAO–Unesco, coarse
Mollic, Calcaric, Umbric, | Soth-West Bulgaria (Petrich area)
South - Central Bulgaria (Plovdiv) | 2 |
| Pepper | Eutric Fluvisols (coarse, medium, fine) | North- Central Bulgaria (Veliko Tarnovo) | 1 |
| Apricots | Eutric Vertisols, fine | North-East Bulgaria (Silistra area) | 1 |
| Peaches | Dysric and Eutric Regosols–coarse | Soth-West Bulgaria (Petrich area)
South – East Bulgaria (Sliven) | 2 |
| Chokeberries | Haplic or Chromic, Luvisols, coarse or medium | North- Central Bulgaria (V. Tarnovo or Lovech) | 1 |
| Vineyards | Dysric Regosols or Eutric
Calcic or Rutric Vertisols, fine | Soth-West Bulgaria (Melnik area)
South – East Bulgaria (Burgas) | 2 |
| No of experiments |  | | 27 |
For every one experiment a detailed program will be worked out. The fertilization rates will be defined more accurately on the basis of the nutrient status of the selected plots. During the crop vegetation the experiments will be observed carefully for the development stages, pest attacks and other factors. The detailed weather data for Veliko Tarnovo area could be obtained using Campbell weather station CR-10 installed in the MTO plot of the airport of Gorna Oryahovitsa. For the weather data in the other areas the possibilities have to be checked. At harvest soil and plant samples from the main and secondary production of the experimental crops will be collected for analyzes. Chemical composition, nutrient uptake, quality parameters will be determined.
The experiments will be demonstrated to the farmers at appropriate stage. Later the experimental results will be discussed with producers and researchers.
During the second phase of the project all the research results and soil test information will be connected to the soil survey GIS and will be used for development of nutrient management software. The outputs of the project will serve for delivering the updated recommendations to farmers and farmer advisers and for educational and demonstration programs working out.
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