Typical Soil Physical and Chemical Characteristics in the Highland Area of Dak Lak Province, Vietnam

In the highland area of Dak Lak province, Central Vietnam, nearly 300,000 ha are covered with ferralitic soils. One of the main obstacles to agricultural production in the region is the low fertility of ferralsols. The current study attempts to relate the features of soil samples by presenting data on 10 physical and chemical aspects.

85 composite soil samples that were collected from five communes in Dak Lak province representing for the highland area, were taken from the 0–30 cm layer at the beginning of the crop season in December 2024. They were air dried and sieved at a 2 mm mesh, then were analyzed to physico-chemical characterization using standard laboratory techniques in 2025.

According to our findings, all of these soils have sand >38% and clay <26%, an average of higher than 3% organic matter and are acidic (pH in KCl <5). As a result, the cation exchange capacity (CEC), which averages >10 cmolc kg^-1, is rather high. Simple correlation and principal component (PC) analyses were used to look at the structure and mutual interference of the 10 variables. The 85 soil samples were separated based on their potassium (PC3 axis), organic matter (PC2 axis) and texture (PC1 axis). Further research will devote to soil characteristics following cropping patterns in order to consider the suitable management practice for sustainable production in this highland area.