Development of Soil Fertility Map as a Decision Support Tool for Fertilizer Recommendations in Citrus
The project will apply GIS technology in mapping the fertility status of soil and fruit yields in major citrus growing areas in Central and Northeast India to provide the desired accuracy and effectiveness in fertilizer recommendations.
IPNI-2010-IND-503
2010 Annual Interpretive Summary
Development of a Soil Fertility Map as a Decision Support Tool for Fertilizer Recommendations for Citrus in India, 2010
Citrus is the third most important fruit crop in India, after mango and banana. Citrus is grown on 840,000 ha nationally and total production approaches 7.6 million t. However, national average productivity of citrus has hovered around 7 to 9 t/ha for the last two decades. The aim of this project is to break this stagnation in yield and improve citrus productivity in India through the consideration of spatial variability of nutrients in citrus orchards and devising site-specific nutrient (SSNM) recommendations. A village with high intensity citrus orchards will be selected in each of the three states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Meghalaya. Soil samples will be collected using either a 100 × 100 m or 250 × 250 m grid, depending on the village characteristics, and samples will be analyzed for different physical and chemical characteristics. This soil test data will form the basis for developing fertility maps via geographic information system (GIS) capable of displaying how nutrients vary in the landscape. Selected orchards will be managed through GIS-based and SSNM-based treatments, which will be evaluated and validated for their ability to predict soil fertility. The efficacy of GIS-based recommendations to achieve a target yield will also be tested. India-003