CHARACTERIZATION AND EVALUATION OF SOIL-SITE SUITABILITY FOR GROUNDNUT IN THE SOILS OF UBEN IRRIGATION COMMAND AREA OF SAURASHTRA REGION IN GUJARAT

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1 Legume Res., 33 (2) : 79-86, 2010 AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION CENTRE / indianjournals.com CHARACTERIZATION AND EVALUATION OF SOIL-SITE SUITABILITY FOR GROUNDNUT IN THE SOILS OF UBEN IRRIGATION COMMAND AREA OF SAURASHTRA REGION IN GUJARAT S.G. Savalia* and J.D. Gundalia Department of Agricultural Chemistry and Soil Science Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh (Gujarat). ABSTRACT The five representative soil pedons were studied for characterization and evaluate for soil-site suitability for groundnut in the soils of Uben Irrigation Command Area of Saurashtra region in Gujarat. All the soils were found dominance of clay (26.4 to 39.8 per cent) and finer in texture. The soils were found clay loam to clayey in texture. The soils are moderately alkaline reaction and calcareous in nature. The soils were found low in available nitrogen, medium in phosphorus and high in potash content. The soils of Vertic Calciustepts [Minor-1, Bava Pipalia (P 1 ) and Minor-4, Arabtimbadi (P 2 )], Vertic Haplustepts [Minor-6, Arabtimbadi (P 3 )] and Lithic Ustorthents [RBMC, Pipalva (P 4 )] and Typic Haplustepts (Minor-9, Chowki(P 5 ) are moderately suitable ( ) for groundnut cultivation. The soil-site characteristics such as drainage, texture and soil fertility appeared to be most striking factors influencing the crop response. Key words: Pedon, Ustic, Isohyperthermic, Piedmont, Soil morphology, Soil Taxonomy, Soil-site suitability, Hydraulic property. INTRODUCTION The soils of Saurashtra region are unique in origin having diverse in genesis, physiography, climate, vegetation, depth, colour, age etc. An understanding of soil characteristics are helpful in the magnitude of changes that may have taken place during the development and in planning the proper management practices to its efficient use in land use planning. Therefore, it is worthwhile to characterize the soils of Uben irrigation command area for their better management. Yield of any crop is influenced by kind of soils occurring in the area, prevailing climate, topography and management levels. Thus, it is essential to interpret the soil site, characteristics of any place in terms of their suitability for the major crops grown in the area and alternative land use planning on suitable basis. Groundnut (Arachis hypogea) is a leguminous oilseed crop native of South America. It is one of the important crops grown in the soils of Uben command area of Saurashtra region in Gujarat state The climatic and soil-site suitability criteria for groundnut cultivation was carried out with slight modification as per Indian condition by NBSS & LUP (1994). However, growing the crop without proper consideration of soil and site characteristics has resulted in overall lower yield and deterioration of soil health. For effective planning and better utilization of soil resources, information relating to soil-site suitability for cultivation of groundnut is necessary. With this objective, suitability of the soils of Uben irrigation command area for groundnut was evaluated. *Office of the Directore of Rearch, Junagadh Agricultural University,Junagadh (Gujarat). sgsavalia@jau.in, sgsavalia@yahoo.co.in, (M)

2 80 LEGUME RESEARCH MATERIAL AND METHODS The Uben irrigation command area comprises of a storage dam across river Uben near village Bhatgam of Bhesan taluka in Junagadh district of Gujarat. The dam site is 25 km away from Junagadh city. The latitude and longitude of the site are N and E. The canal network covers a gross cultivable command area of 3059 hectare spreading on both the banks of river Uben. The catchments of dam site are sq. km. A sufficient number of streams merged in to river provides amount of storage water during heavy storms. The rotational water system is well adopted by farmers in whole command area comprising of 2508 hectares. The command area covering village Chowki, Kathrota and Ishapur of Junagadh taluka of Junagadh district and Arabtimbadi, Akala, Pipalava and Bava Pipaliya villages of Jetpur taluka of Rajkot district in South Saurashtra agro climatic sub region (Fig.1). The climate is semi arid with an average annual rainfall of 552 mm. The maximum temperature reaches C in the hottest month of April and May, whereas the lowest temperature falls to C in the coldest month of January. The spatially variable following five representative pedons site were excavated at different locations up to 120 cm or parent rock observed, whichever has earlier as per below. Pedon Minor/water Soils site /village Soil family. No. course No. P 1 M-1 Bava pipaliya (Rajkot district) Fine, mixed, calcareous, isohyperthermic Vertic Calciustepts P 2 M-4 Arabtimbadi(Rajkot district) Fine, calcareous, smectite, isophyperthermic,vertric Calciustptes P 3 M-6 Arabtimbadi(Rajkot district) Fine,, mixed, calcareous, isohyperthermic Vertic Haplustepts P 4 RBMC Pipalava(Rajkot district) Fine, mixed, calcareous, isohyperthermic Lithic Ustorthents P 5 M-9 Chowki(Junagadh district.) Fine, mixed, calcareous, isohyperthermic, Typic Haplustepts Fig.1 : Site of pedons in Uben Irrigation command area

3 The horizon wise soil samples of the above five representative pedons in the soils of Uben irrigation command area were collected and processed for physico-chemical analysis by using standard procedures (Richards, 1954). The soil-site suitability criteria for groundnut cultivation was carried out using the FAO (1976) and Sys et al. (1991) with slight modification by NBSS & LUP (1994) (Table-1) were matched with soil-site characteristics of different soil types to arrive at suitability classes. Suitability classes were determined with regards to the number and intensity of limitations. The soils were evaluated in different suitability classes (Sys et al., 1991) as per given below: Highly suitable: Optimum condition for plant growth ( - 2 ) have slight limitation, no more than one correctable moderate limitation. Moderate suitable: Land units, having moderate limitations that affect productivity by 20 to 40%. Marginally suitable: Land units, representing strong conditions; affect productivity significantly but still marginally economical, have more than 3 moderate limitations and no more than one severe limitation (correctable) that, however, do not exclude the use of land. Order N not suitable: Land which has qualities that appears to preclude its sustained use. N 1 Currently not suitable (Actually unsuitable but potentially suitable): Land unit(s), having limitations, which may be surmountable with times, have a severe limitation that excludes the use of the land or more than one sever limitation that can not be corrected. N 2 Permanently not suitable (Actually and potentially unsuitable): Land unit(s), having limitations, which appear, so severe as to preclude any possibilities of successful sustained use of land in a given manner. Vol. 33, No. 2, 2010 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 81 Characterization of Soils: Physical properties: The physical properties of each of the horizons of the representative pedons are depicted in Table 2. The mechanical composition of the soils indicates the dominance of clay (4.1 to 39.8 per cent) having clay loam to clayey in texture. The clay content generally decreased with increasing soil depth in pedons P 1, P 2 and P 4 while it increased at lower depth in P 3 except in C horizon indicating the slight illuviation. The textural variation as supported by wide sand to silt ratio i.e. from 1.72 to 3.87 clearly suggest the parent material is heterogeneous, stratification and the lithological discontinuities in these soils. These soils are characterized by high sand/silt ratios owing to the influence of dolomite fragments sediments transported by the local streams at the upper piedmont. (Bhaskar and Nagarju, 1998). The depth wise differences in successive values of sand/silt ratio greater than 0.8 (Road and Protzo, 1971) indicate the lithological discontinuties in pedon. The bulk density in surface and sub surface layer was found comparatively low value between 1.21 to 1.33 and 1.25 to 12.9 mg m -3, respectively. The total porosity ranged from 42.4 to 55.0 per cent. The water holding capacity and per cent expansion of the soils of all the pedons were found between 38.9 and 54.1 per cent and 3.5 and 18.8 per cent, respectively indicated that the soils of entire command area were fine in textured as it has more than 30 per cent clay. The saturation percentage of all the pedons were ranged from 38.0 to 60.4 per cent (Table- 2). The pedons P 1 to P 4 had moderate and good drainage, respectively whereas, soil depth of all pedons varied from 78 to 120 cm. (Table-4). Chemical characteristics The chemical characteristics of the five typifying pedons are given in Table 3. The electrical conductivity in 1:2.5 and in saturation extracts ranges from 0.1 to 0.3 ds m -1 and 0.4 to 0.9 ds m -1, respectively indicating non saline nature of soils in the entire command area. The

4 82 LEGUME RESEARCH Table 1 : Climatic and soil-site sustainability criteria of Groundnut (FAO, 1976, Sys et al., 1991 and NBSS & LUP, 1994) Land characteristics Rating class* N 1 N Climatic (C) Precipitation (mm) > <550 - LGP(days) > <70 Mean temperature ( 0 C) < 10 Mean maximum temperature of growing cycle ( 0 C) > 40 Mean minimum temperature of growing cycle ( 0 C) < 6 Topography (t) Slope (%) > 6 Wetness (w) Drainage Well Moderate Imperfect Poor Poor not drain-ability drainable Physical characteristics (s) Texture / structure sl or ls c<60s c>60v cm, sicm (Surface) l or cl(sub surface) Coarse fragments (%) > 35 Soil depth (cm) > < 25 CaCO 3 (%) Gypsum (%) Soil fertility characteristics (f) CEC (cmol (P + ) kg -1 ) > 16 > 16(-) C16(+) B.S. (%) 35 < 35 ph, H 2 O Organic carbon (%) > < 0.4 Salinity alkalinity (n) ECe (dsm -1 ) > 12 ESP (%) > 20 * Highly suitable, Moderately suitable, Marginally suitable N 1 Actually unsuitable but potentially suitable, N 2 Actually and potentially unsuitable ph in 1:2.5 and in saturation extracts ranged from 8.1 to 8.5 and 7.9 to 9.0, respectively indicated the soils of command area were moderately alkaline in reaction. The soils of all the pedons are calcareous in nature having CaCO 3 ranging from 2.1 to 29.0 per cent. An increasing trend of CaCO 3 with depth was observed in pedons P 1, P 4 due to the greater influence of parent material underlying (Singh et al., 1999). The maximum accumulation of CaCO 3 was found in C horizon in all the pedons indicating a liothological lime developed (Gundalia and Savalia, 2000). The organic carbon and organic matter content in all the pedons ranged from 0.20 to 0.55 per cent and 0.34 to 0.95 per cent, respectively. The surface soil of P 4 showed slightly higher content of organic carbon due to addition of crop residues by the farmers. The organic carbon and organic matter content decreased with increase in soil depth in P 4. The vertical distribution of organic carbon content depended on soil texture. The wide variations with depth were observed in P 1, P 2 soils were due to highly stratified nature. The nitrogen content decreased with increase in soil depth in the solum of pedons P 3, P 4 except in P 1 and P 2. The available P 2 O 5 content were found between 25.6 and 51.2 kg ha -1 in P 1 to P 5, while the available K 2 O content ranged from 86 to 440 kg ha -1 in all

5 Vol. 33, No. 2, Table 2 : Physical Properties of Typifying Pedons of Uben irrigation Command Area Horizon DEPTH Mechanical Texture Sand/silt B.D. Total WHC % Expan- Satur (cm) composition class ratio Mg m -3 Porosity % Sion% ation% sand(%) silt(%) clay(%) P 1 : Vertic Calciustepts (M-1, Village Bava Pipalia, Dist. Rajkot ) c cl cl C ls P 2 : Vertic Calcustepts (M-4, Village Arabtimbadi Dist. Rajkot ) cl cl A cl sicl C ls P 3 : Vertic Haplustepts (M-6, Village Arabtimbadi, Dist. Rajkot ) cl cl A cl c C sl P 4 : Lithic Ustorthents (RBMC, Village Pipalawa, Dist. Rajkot ) cl sicl C sl P 5 : Typic Haplustepts (M-9, Village Chowki, Dist. Junagadh) sicl B c C sl the pedons which decreased with increased in soil depth. Relationship between rainfall, runoff and infiltration rate The average ( ) rainfall (552 mm) received during 22 nd to 45 th standard meteorological weeks in the Uben irrigation command area is depicted in Fig. 2 shows that the probability of total runoff (35 mm) may take place only in the three standard weeks viz., (i) 25 th (14 mm), (ii) 28 th (14 mm) and (iii) 29 th (7 mm) week assuming the intensity of rainfall exceeded than the average infiltration rate of 14.3 mm hr -1 which can be diverted to the surface reservoir for the use of life save irrigation for groundnut and other kharif crops, long duration of kharif crops and for the short duration rabi crops. Soil-site Suitability for Groundnut Climate, site and important physicochemical characteristics (weighted means) of the soils of Uben irrigation command area are given in Table-4, while the degree of limitations and suitability of soils for groundnut are presented in Table-5 The results revealed that the soils of Vertic Calciustepts [Minor-1, Bava Pipalia (P 1 ) and Minor-4, Arabtimbadi (P 2 )], Vertic Haplustepts [Minor-6, Arabtimbadi (P 3 )] and Lithic Ustorthents [RBMC, Pipalva (P 4 )] and Typic Haplustepts (Minor-9, Chowki(P 5 ) were moderately suitable ( ) for groundnut cultivation on account of limitations like drainage (moderately drained), texture and soil fertility (O.C to 0.38%) and suitability rating for this crop could be improved by managing these constraints through drainage improvement and soil fertility management include addition of higher dose of organic manures along with inorganic fertilizers. CONCLUSION From ongoing discussion it may be summarized that the soils of Uben irrigation

6 84 LEGUME RESEARCH Table 3 : Chemical properties of typifying pedon of Uben irrigation command area Horizon Depth ph ECd Saturation Caco 3 O.C.(%) O.M.(%) N(%) Av. Av. (Cm) (1:2.5) (1:2.5) S/m Extract (%) phs EcedS/m P Kg/ha K 2 0Kg/ha P 1 : Vertic Calciustepts (M-1, Village Bava Pipalia, Dist. Rajkot ) C P 2 : Vertic Calcustepts (M-4, Village Arabtimbadi Dist. Rajkot ) A C P 3 : Vertic Haplustepts (M-6, Village Arabtimbadi, Dist. Rajkot ) A C P 4 : Lithic Ustorthents (RBMC, Village Pipalawa, Dist. Rajkot ) C P 5 : Typic Haplustepts (M-9, Village Chowki, Dist. Junagadh) B C Table 4 : Climate, site and important physico-chemical characteristics(weighted mean) of the soils of Uben irrigation command area. Parameters Pedon-1 Pedon-2 Pedon-3 Pedon-4 Pedon-5 Vertic Calciustepts Vertic Calciustepts Vertic Haplustepts Lithic Ustorthents Typic Haplustepts (M-1, Bava Pipaliya) (M-4, Arabtimbadi) (M-6, Arabtimbadi) (RBMC, Pipalva) (M-9, Chowki) Mean annual rainfall (mm) Mean annual temperature ( 0 C) Slope (%) Drainage Moderate Moderate Moderate Moderate Well drained Depth (cm) ph (1:2.5) (8.38) (8.41) (8.22) (8.37) (8.34) ECe (dsm -1 ) (0.66) (0.66) (0.56) (0.43) (0.50) O.C.(%) (0.32) (0.26) (0.38) (0.24) (0.25) CaCO 3 (%) (24.85) (19.53) (5.22) (12.64) (17.22) Silt (%) (20.44) (19.75) (13.13) (17.60) (23.38) Clay (%) (28.19) (27.08) (29.83) (29.52) (21.38) Texture cl cl cl cl l CEC (c mol (28.28) (23.82) (22.53) (P+) kg -1 ) (29.49) (28.22) (NaOAC) B.S. (%) (90.41) (93.20) (90.94) (90.63) (90.72) ESP (4.51) (6.19) (4.56) (8.13) (5.57) Figures in parenthesis indicate weighted mean value. cl = Clay loam, l = Loam

7 Vol. 33, No. 2, Table 5. Degree of limitation and suitability of soils for groundnut. Parameters Pedon-1 Pedon-2 Pedon-3 Pedon-4 Pedon-5 Vertic Calciustepts Vertic Calciustepts Vertic Haplustepts Lithic Ustorthents Typic Haplustepts (M-1, Bava Pipaliya) (M-4, Arabtimbadi) (M-6, Arabtimbadi) (RBMC, Pipalva) (M-9, Chowki) Rainfall Temperature Slope Drainage Texture Depth CaCO3 CEC B.S. O.C. ECe ESP Groundnut area (ha) Major Drainage, texture Drainage, texture Drainage, texture Drainage, texture O.C. (0.25%) constraints and O.C. (0.32%) and O.C. (0.26%) and O.C. (0.38%) and O.C. (0.24%) Soil suitability Moderately Moderately Moderately Moderately Moderately class Suitable Suitable Suitable Suitable Suitable

8 86 LEGUME RESEARCH command area are moderately alkaline reaction and calcareous in nature. The soils were found low in available nitrogen, medium in phosphorus and high in potash. The soils of Vertic Calciustepts [Minor-1, Bava Pipalia (P 1 ) and Minor-4, Arabtimbadi (P 2 )], Vertic Haplustepts [Minor-6, Arabtimbadi (P 3 )] and Lithic Ustorthents [RBMC, Pipalva (P 4 )] and Typic Haplustepts (Minor-9, Chowki(P 5) are moderately suitable ( ) for groundnut cultivation. The soil-site characteristics such as drainage, texture and soil fertility appeared to be most striking factors influencing the crop response. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors acknowledge with thanks Dr. R.B. Marviya, Ex. Research Scientist (Agril. Engg.) and Shri Dhamasania, Tech. Asstt., Department of RTTC, of this College for providing necessary facilities and help during the study. REFERENCES Bhaskar, B.P. and Nagaraju, M.S.S. (1998). J.Indian Soc. Soil Sci., 46: 416 FAO, (1976). A Framework of Land Evaluation, Soils Bull., 32, FAO, Rome. Gundalia, J.D. and Savalia, S.G. (2000). GAU, National Symposium held at Gujarat Agricultural university., Junagadh Invitee paper Vol.I: NBSS and LUP (1994). Proc. National Meet on Soil-site Suitability Criteria for Different Crops. held at NBSS and LUP (ICAR), Feb. 7-8, 1994, New Delhi. Richards, L.A. (1954). Diagnosis and Improvement of Saline and Alkali Soils. USDA Hand Book No. 60. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., USA. Road, A.T. and Protozo,Nr. (1971 ). Geoderma,6: 23. Sehgal J.L. (1986). Introductory Pedology, Soil Genesis, Survey and Classification. Kalyani Publishers, New Delhi. Singh, S.K. et al (1999). J.Indian Soc. Soil Sci., 47(2): Sys, I.C et al, (1991). Land evaluation, Part II and III. Methods in Land Evaluation. Agric. Publ. General administration for development co-operation place, de, camp de mars, 5 btc, , Brussels, Belgium. Publ. General administration for development co-operation place, de, camp de mars, 5 btc, , Brussels, Belgium.