Spatial variability in soil physico-chemical properties and nutrient status in an intensively cultivated village of West Bengal
A major aspect in agricultural production is fertilizer management. Deficit application of fertilizer limits crop yield and facilitates nutrient mining resulting in depletion of soil fertility. An excessive or imbalanced application not only wastes limited resource but also pollutes the environment. So the producers are faced with an ever-increasing demand for fine tuning fertilizer management with economic optimization in one hand and environmental concern in the other. An approach towards mitigating such concern is location specific nutrient management, which takes into account spatial variations in agricultural fields cutting down the possibility of over or under use of fertilizer. In India, the general agronomic practices follow a standard management option for a large area irrespective of the variability occurring within and among the fields. Since native nutrient status varies not only from field to field but also within a field, there is a need to take into account such variability while applying fertilizers. The current study aims to highlight the variability in physico-chemical properties and nutrient status among farmers’ fields within a small section of an intensively cultivated village in West Bengal.