An Assessment of Soil Quality and Agricultural Production Status in the Alluvial Soil Region: A Case Study in Koch Bihar District, West Bengal, India

Abstract

Soil refers to the upper layer of the Earth’s surface, which is made up of a mixture of organic residues, clay, and rock particles, and that's where plants grow. The soil quality is the environmental aspect that is most significant in agricultural activities, as well as for the concern of the safety of agricultural produces. At present-day, soil quality assessment becomes the most important issue because of the raising food security awareness. This study was assessed in Koch Bihar district, West Bengal, India, to quantify soil quality using the weighted Soil Quality Index (SQI) approach. For this assessment, the soil-related data were collected from the Soil Health Card (SHC) of the Agricultural Development Offices in all blocks of Koch Bihar and then analyzed using the principal component analysis (PCA) and expert opinion (EO) method. The weights of the selected soil quality indicators were determined using the integrated Fuzzy-AHP model. According to this method, 12 indicators, i.e., soil pH, soil electrical conductivity (EC), soil organic carbon content, nitrogen content, potassium content, phosphors content, soil texture, the groundwater level in the winter season, cropping intensity, and drainage frequency were considered based on literature review. The SQI assessment was done accordingly for each spatial unit (Block), and the spatial variability of the soil quality map was produced by GIS spatial analysis module. The findings may aid in promoting non-harmful produce production, the provision of scientific data for agricultural structure adjustment, and the maintenance of agricultural sustainability.