Determination of Minimum Data Set for Soil Health Assessment of Farmlands under Wheat–Maize Crop System in Yanting County, Sichuan, China

Zakir Hussain, Limei Deng, Xuan Wang, Rongyang Cui, Xueqin Li, Gangcai Liu (), Ishtiaq Hussain, Farman Wali and Muhammad Ayub
Additional contact information
Zakir Hussain: Laboratory of Mountain Surface Processes and Ecological Regulation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Conservancy, Chengdu 610041, China
Limei Deng: Laboratory of Mountain Surface Processes and Ecological Regulation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Conservancy, Chengdu 610041, China
Xuan Wang: Laboratory of Mountain Surface Processes and Ecological Regulation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Conservancy, Chengdu 610041, China
Rongyang Cui: Laboratory of Mountain Surface Processes and Ecological Regulation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Conservancy, Chengdu 610041, China
Xueqin Li: Laboratory of Mountain Surface Processes and Ecological Regulation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Conservancy, Chengdu 610041, China
Gangcai Liu: Laboratory of Mountain Surface Processes and Ecological Regulation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Conservancy, Chengdu 610041, China
Ishtiaq Hussain: Department of Botany, University of Baltistan Skardu, Skardu 16100, Pakistan
Farman Wali: College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, Yangling 712100, China
Muhammad Ayub: PARC Agricultural Research Station, Skardu 16100, Pakistan

Agriculture, 2024, vol. 14, issue 6, 1-15

Abstract: The assessment of soil health through a robust index system having a sufficient number of indicators is an important step toward sustainable crop production. The present study aimed at establishing a minimum data set (MDS) from soil functional and nutritional attributes using a dual index system to evaluate the soil health of farmlands under wheat ( Triticum aestivum )–maize ( Zea mays ) crop rotation in Yanting County, Sichuan, China. Farms from 10 villages in the study area were selected, out of which three sites were considered healthy/ideal sites and used as a reference for the remaining seven targeted sites, and soil samples were collected at depth of 20 cm from these farms. The MDS indicators were selected by using principal component analysis (PCA) followed by Pearson’s correlation on 25 attributes. Based on significant values, eight attributes were retained in the final MDS, including the sucrase level, pH, wilting coefficient, water holding capacity, organic matter, NK ratio, total potassium, and available phosphorus. Based on the results, most of the farmland soils in Yanting County were in a healthy condition, accounting for 61.71% of the surveyed samples, followed by sub-healthy, degraded, and weak soils, accounting for 19.64%, 9.71%, and 8.93%, respectively. The values of most of the indicators at the targeted sites were significantly lower than those at ideal sites. Thus, specific steps should be taken by adding soil organic matter, combined with other fertilizers, to enhance the microbial biomass, enzymatic activities, and other biological activities in the soil.

Keywords: minimum data set; soil health; soil health index; Yanting County; PCA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/6/951/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/6/951/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:14:y:2024:i:6:p:951-:d:1417083

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().