Baseline fertility status of a gravelly alfisol in a derived savannah agro-ecological zone of Nigeria

Abstract

Farmers have not tested their soils for nutrient status and therefore are unaware of the fertility status of their soils. Therefore, a baseline fertility survey of 50 hectares of land of a gravelly Alfisol in the Teaching and Research Farm of Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Kwara State, Nigeria was carried out with a view to identifying soil health constraints and site-specific sustainable land management practices for optimizing crop production. Standard field protocols and laboratory analytical procedures were employed for all sample parameters measured. Results show that the soil textural classes vary from sand to loamy sand, exchangeable acidity, Ca, Mg, K, and Na and the effective cation exchange capacity has the surface and subsurface soilvaluesof 0.0–0.92 and 0.00–0.89 cmol kg−1 , 1.6–7.7 and 2.0–5.8 cmol kg−1 , 1.2–11.5 and 0.7–8.0 cmol kg−1 , 0.09–0.33 and 0.09–0.43 cmol kg−1 , 0.0–0.16 and 0.04–0.16 cmol kg−1 , 7.2–12.10 and 0.9–12.5 cmol kg−1 , respectively. P values lie in the ranges of 2.5–68.9 mg kg−1 and 2.0–37.7 mg kg−1 in the surface and subsurface soils, respectively, organic C values were 0.86–2.81%and 0.68–3.49%, respectively, in the surface and subsurface soils while the values of Nwere 0.120.61% in the surface and 0.11–0.56% subsurface soils. Land evaluation shows that the soils of the project site are very fragile and poor in native fertility. Compound fertilizers low innitrogen contents but high in phosphorus and potassium are recommended for gravelly Alfisol in a derived savannah ecological zone of the Kwara State, Nigeria to avoid a nutrient imbalance that may create artificial deficiencies of otherwise adequate nutrient elements.