Interrelationships Between Soil Quality Indicators and Alfalfa Productivity for Some Soils of Monufyia Governorate

The present study was carried out to investigate the interrelationships between some physical and chemical soil characteristics and alfalfa productivity at El-Sadat area, Monufyia Governorate during 2013/2015 years. Eight surface soil samples (0-30 cm) from each location were correlated for the investigated soil indicators determination. The investigated indicators were the coarse sand (CS), fine sand, silt and clay content, bulk density (BD), real density (RD), total porosity (TP), quickly drainable pores (QDP), slowly drainable pores (SDP), water holding capacity (WHC), hydraulic conductivity (HC), field capacity (F. C), wilting coefficient (WC), mean weight diameter (MWD); pH, electric conductivity (EC), organic matter (OM), cation exchange capacity (CEC), calcium carbonate (CaCO3), available potassium (Av-K) and total nitrogen (TN). The highest values of mean standard deviation and the relative weight of physical and chemical indicators were obtained for organic matter represents the important relative weight followed by cation exchange capacity, total nitrogen, clay content, total porosity, field capacity and quickly drainable pores. Concerning the relationship of some soil parameters and alfalfa productivity, the data of correlation studies showed that the most suitable indicators for evaluation of soil quality under different soil management of study area were organic matter, cation exchange capacity, total nitrogen, clay content, total porosity, field capacity and quickly drainable pores.