Soil fertility assessment of organically grown turmeric in Vasmat tahsil of Hingoli district

The present investigation was carried out during 2021-2022 to evaluate the soil nutrient status of organic turmeric growing areas under Vasmat tahsil of Hingoli district of Maharashtra. Fifty farmers who adopted organic farming for turmeric cultivation was selected from 12 different villages with the help of Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA), State Agriculture Department Vasmat, Hingoli District who were connected in different organic farming groups of different villages. The total fifty soil samples were (0-20 cm depth) collected at senescence stage by GPS based location system. These soil samples further analyzed for study of important physical properties viz. bulk density, particle density, soil colour, water holding capacity and soil texture and chemical properties like pH, EC, organic carbon, calcium carbonate and major nutrients N, P, K & S. The results indicated that these soils are clayey to clay loam in texture. Soil colour is found dark brown, grayish brown, dark gryish brown, brown and very dark gray. The bulk density, particle density, water holding capacity of these soils were varied 1.16 to 1.32 Mg m^-3, 2.27 to 2.59 Mg m^-3, 66.3 to 76.2 percent, respectively with an average values of 1.24 Mg m^-3, 2.41 Mg m^-3 and 70.5 per cent, respectively. The soils of Vasmat tahsil were neutral to slightly alkaline having safe range of electrical conductivity for crop growth, medium to high in organic carbon and calcareous to highly calcareous in nature. Further data indicated that these soils were found low to medium, medium to high, high and low to high in respect of available N, P, K and S, respectively.