Assessing Soil Health of Vertisol of AESR 10.1 using Selected Physical, Chemical and Biological Attributes of Soils

Soil quality assessment has been suggested as a tool for evaluating sustainability of soil and crop management practices. The study was conducted to assess the soil quality of AESR 10.1 covering largely Vertisols using 15 physical, chemical and biological attributes. The results showed that 70 and 28% of the soils of Sehore district had organic C content in medium and low range while 76% of the soils were low in organic C content in Vidisha district. In both the districts, more than 80 and 50% soils had available N and P status in medium range and more than 75% soils were medium in available K status. The relative soil quality index (RSQI) was computed for each district based on 15 soil attributes, which are known to exert significant influence on crop productivity. The soil with RSQI values less than 50% were rated as poor, 5070% as medium category and more than 70% as good quality soils. About 4, 78 and 18% soil samples of Sehore and 16, 78 and 66% soil samples of Vidisha districts belonged to poor, medium and good quality categories, respectively. The RSQI values were significantly correlated with average relative yield (r = 0.636**), indicating the reliability of the proposed method of soil quality assessment.