M.B. Mahendra Kumar, C.T. Subbarayappa, V. Ramamurthy, B.V. Shreenivas and C. Vijay Kumar
Abstract
An investigation was under taken to study the characterization of surface soils in irrigated land management unit-1 (Command area) of Mysore District, Karnataka. The 10 surface soil samples (0-15 cm) were collected from rice, maize and sugarcane based cropping system from different villages belonging to Mysore district, Karnataka were characterized for various physical and chemical properties. The results revealed that, soils belong to sandy clay loam to sandy loam texture with mean BD and PD varied from 1.45 to 1.52 and 2.54 to 2.62 Mg m-3 under different cropping systems. The average pore space and WHC varied from 42.06 to 42. 97 per cent and 30.44 to 38.79 per cent, respectively. The soils were slightly acid to neutral in reaction with low electrical conductivity. Organic carbon status in soils was medium to high. Majority of the soils were medium in available N, low in available P2O5 and high in available K2O but exchangeable calcium and magnesium in soils were sufficient and low in available sulphur. The DTPA-Zn, Cu, Fe, Mn and hot water soluble boron content in soil was sufficient under selected cropping systems.