Soil Testing A Panacea to Crop Yield and Agricultural Sustainability – A Case for Farmers of South Eastern, Nigeria
Abstract
Increasing human population is closely related with the increasing demand of food and pressure on available land with the rising demand on fertilizer that has not been sustainable at the farmer’s level. This causes soil fertility decline, nutrient imbalance and low residual effect which are constraint affecting agricultural production in south eastern soils of Nigeria in particular and to large extent in tropical environment. Land available to be used for intensive crop production activities is limited and this demand for adequate soil testing that will x-ray the fertility status of the soil before crop planting. The characteristics and amount of nutrient elements of a soil and soil biodiversity is influenced by climatic conditions, erosion/leaching, drought, cultivation history/land use system, cropping history, kinds of pesticides/herbicides applied, type and methods of inorganic and organic fertilizer applied. Soil testing quantifies the total value of plant nutrient elements available in a sampled soil that will directly promote crop growth and yield. Due to its biophysical, biochemical, biological and physiochemical results, soil testing when appropriately interpreted and applied may be used effectively to promote sustainable crop production and environmental health in a tropical soil like south eastern, Nigeria.
References
Barber, S. A., Bray, R. J., Caldwell, A. C., Fox, R. L., Fried, M., Hanway, J. J., Hovland, D., Ketchson, J. W., Laughton, W. M., Lawton, K., Lipps, R. C., Olson, R. A., Pesek, J. T., Pretty, K., Reed, M., Smith, F.W. & Stickney, E. M. (1961). North Central Regional potassium studies: II. Greenhouse experiments with millet. North Central Regional Publication No. 123. Indiana Agric. Exp. Stn. Res. Bul. RB 717.
Brady, N. C., & Weil, R. R. (1999). The nature and properties of soils (12th ed). Prentice Hall Inc. N J pp 656-659.
Edward, P. J. (1992). Soil Science and management (2nd ed). Pp. 275-284, Delmer publisher.
Erosion Technology and Concentration (ETC). group communiqué May/June 2008 issue # 99, Ottawa Canada.
Fitts, F. W., & Hanway, J. J. (1976). Prescribing soil and crop nutrient need. In: Fertilizer Technology and Use, Pp 57-78.
Gingrich, R. J. (1965). Effect of soil temperature on the response of winter wheat to phosphorous fertilization. Agronomy Journal, 57(1), 41-44. https://doi.org/10.2134/agronj1965.00021962005700010014x
Graham, E. R. (1959). An explanation of theory and methods of soil testing, Missouri. Agric Expt. Sta. Bull., 734.
Hanway, J. J. (1962). North Central Region Potassium studies with corn, North Cen. Pub. No 135, Ottawa Agric. Exp. Sta. Bull. 503.
Iowa State University Cooperation Extension Services. (1963). Take a good soil sample pamphlet 287 (Rev).
Mclean, E. O. (1973). Testing soils for pH and lime requirement in soil testing and plant analysis. In Leo M. Walsh, & James D. Beaton (Eds.), Soil Sci. Soc. Am. Inc. Madison Wisconsin USA.
Miller, R. W., & Donahue, R. L. (1992). Soils, An introduction to soils and plant growth (6th ed). Prentice Hall Inc. Eaglewood Cliff NJ USA.
Nweke, I. A., & Ilo, G. E. (2019). Cultivation and land use changes their implications in soil productivity management and crop yield J. Agriculture and Agribusiness, 4(1), 35-62.
Nweke, I. A (2018a). Contrasting tillage systems and wood ash effect on soil chemical properties. British J. Environ. Sci., 7(1), 8-25.
Nweke, I. A. & Nsoanya, L. N. (2013). Soil pH an indices for effective management of soils for crop production. Journal of Scientific and Technology Research, 2(3), 132-134.
Nweke, I. A. (2017). Influence of wood charcoal from chlorophera excels on soil properties and yield components of maize. Journal of Soil Science Environmental Management, 8(1), 11-16. https://doi.org/10.5897/JSSEM2015.0566
Nweke, I. A. (2018b). The good, the bad and the ugly of tillage in agricultural sustainability- A review. Greener Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 8(9), 217-250. https://doi.org/10.15580/GJAS.2018.9.090618130
Peck, T. R. & Melsted, S. W. (1973). Field sampling for soil testing, in soil testing and plant analysis, Leo M. Walsh and James D. Beaton (eds) Soil Sci. Soc. Am. Inc. Madison Wisconsin USA.
Read, I. F., Fitts, J. W., Hanway, J. J., Kanos, L.T, Mcgeorge, W. T., & Dean, L. A. (1953). Sampling soils for chemical tests Better Crops Plant Food, 37(8), 13-18.
Schickluna, J. C. (1981). Sampling soils for fertilization and lime recommendations MSU Ag. Facts Ext. Bull. E498 Coop. Ext. Serv. Mich. State University East Lansing Mich. 1981.
Scott, A. D., & Hanway, J. J. (1960). Factors influencing the changes in exchangeable soil potassium observed on dry org. Int. Congr. Soil Sci. Trans (7th ed). Madison Wise, 3, 72-79.
Tisdale, S. L., Nelson, W. L., Beaton, J. D., & Havlin, J. L. (2003). Soil fertility and fertilizers (5th ed). Practice Hall New Delhi India.
Westerman, R. I. (Ed) (1990). Soil testing and Plant analysis (3rd ed). Soil Sci. Soc. Am. Madison Wisconsin USA. https://doi.org/10.2136/sssabookser3.3ed
Zhang, J. Z., Robert, A. C., & Jian- Kang Z. (2004). From laboratory to field, using information from Arabidopsis to Engineer salt, cold and drought tolerance in crops. Plant Physiology, 135(2), 625- 621. https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.104.040295
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
