Vol. 12, Special Issue 6 (2023)

Author(s):
Utkarsha Deshmukh, Pharande AL, Bhakare BD and Durgude AG

Abstract:
A field and laboratory studies were conducted to assess the physical properties of different land-use of Rahuri, Pather and Babulgaon soil series. The depth wise soils samples from above mentioned soil series were collected under fallow land, conventionally cultivated land and guava orchards in farmers field at Rahata, Ahmednagar and further processed and analysed in the Division of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Rahuri. From the study, it was revealed that the Rahuri soil series exhibited a silty clay texture, while the Pather and Babulgaon soil series exhibited a clay textural class and the data regarding bulk showed wide variation among different soils ranging from 1.08 Mg m-3 in surface soils of guava orchards of Babulgaon to 1.57 Mg m-3 in lower depth of fallow land of Pather series. Further, tabulated values of soil hydraulic conductivity revealed that the Rahuri series of Guava orchards exhibited the highest values for soil hydraulic conductivity. (1.98 cm h^-1) and the lowest under D4 depth (Bwss2 horizon) of Babulgaon series of fallow land (0.59 cm h^-1). In surface horizon, the soil porosity of Rahuri series ranged from 41.76 to 49.90 per cent with mean value of 46.01, in Pather series, it ranged from 45.39 to 54.49 per cent with the mean value of 50.12 and in Babulgaon series, it ranged from 48.14 to 57.95 per cent with the mean value of 52.76 per cent. It was found that the continuous addition of organic matter via leaf litter under perennial crops helps to increase the physical properties of the soil and maintain the soil health as compared to annual crops.