Studies on the fertility status in relation to soil properties in Kandi belt of Jammu district

Fertility status in soils of different land use patterns from Kandi belt of Jammu district in Jammu region, J&K State has been studied in terms of available N, P, K, Ca, Mg and S contents. The results indicated large variation of available nutrients not only in soils of various land use groups, viz. uncultivated barren, cultivated unmanaged, cultivated well managed and forest lands, but also within the soils of each land use group. Generally the amount of all the available nutrients was more in the surface soils than those of sub-surface. The soils of uncultivated barren and cultivated unmanaged lands were low in organic carbon content as well as in available N, S and P and to some extent in K. Organic matter, clay and silt content of the soils vis-a-vis cation exchange capacity were found to be the main factors in controlling these available nutrients content of these soils, which is quite evident from the positive correlations of these parameters with most of the plant nutrients.