Nutrient Status of Sugarcane Growing Soils of Nizamabad District of Telangana State

Sugarcane is a commercial crop predominantly grown in Nizamabad district. Investigating the fertility status of sugarcane growing soil is required to underpin future land use planning. A field soil survey was carried out in major sugar cane growing soils (5 mandals/taluk) of Nizamabad district of Telangana state. A total number of 94 samples were collected from 0-15 cm (surface soil) and 15-30 cm (subsurface soil) depths using global positioning system (GPS) co-ordinates. Collected soil samples were chemically analyzed for the important soil attributes viz., pH, electrical conductivity (EC), organic carbon (OC), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), sulphur (S), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn) and copper (Cu) using standard analytical procedures. Correlation analysis was performed to study the relationship between the different soil properties. The soil reaction (pH) showed wide variation at surface and subsurface depths showing that soils are slightly acidic to strongly alkaline in nature. Organic carbon content varied from low to high (0.25 to 1.41% and 0.22 to 0.75% at 0-15 and 15-30 cm depths respectively). Whereas available N content were low to high (136 to 310 kg ha-1 and 23 to 166 kg ha-1 at 0-15 cm and 15-30 cm depths respectively), medium to high in available P (12.05 to 103.6 kg ha-1 and 3.6 to 27.90 kg ha-1 at 0-15 cm and 15-30 cm depths respectively), high in available K (242 to 715 kg ha-1 and 108 to 466 kg ha-1 at 0-15 cm and 15-30 cm depths respectively). Further, the soils are deficient to sufficient in available S and Zn, Fe, Mn and Cu were sufficient. Nitrogen was positively correlated with the organic carbon (r=0.883, p<0.05) at surface soil and negatively related at subsurface soil. All the major nutrients viz., N, P, and K correlated positively with OC (r=0.883*, 0.768, and 0.267 respectively) at surface soil. Conclusively, the results of the study area showed in all the sugarcane growing mandals of Nizamabad district necessitating the need for refinement of fertilizer scheduling to sugarcane crop yield and productivity.