Assesment Of Soil Quality And Its Relation To Fruit Crop Productivity

Abstract

Assessment of soil quality is important to sustaining high crop yield. Therefore, a proper soil quality assessment by integrating soil characteristics to get overall assessment with making soil quality index (SQI) to reflect soil productivity and supporting plant growth is necessary. This study aims to determine the SQI and its relation to fruit crop productivity which was carried out at seven locations with variable soil charavteristics. The location of the research was Saree and Nisam-Aceh province, Gelumbang and Banyuasin 3-South Sumatera Province, Metro and Gedong Tataan- Lampung Province, and Kelapa- Bangka Belitung Province. The analisis of soil quality index used eight (8) key soil characteristics that have most important role in determining and managing crop growth and production, i.e: effective depth, texture. bulk density, pH, organic matter content, cation exchange capacity, and base saturation as indicator parameters. Each parameter was given a score between 0-5. The result showed that Soil Quality Index can accurately assessed soil quality by using the 8 key parameters as a dataset. The soils studied were categorized as medium to very good soil quality, with low organic carbon and low cation exchange capacity being the most common limiting factors. SQI has a relatively good positive correlation to fruit crop performance with R2 of 0.692.