Effect of Soil Physico-chemical Properties on Agriculture: A Study in Tangail District, Bangladesh

Aims: The economic development of Bangladesh is mainly influenced by agriculture sector, but lacks of available information regarding soil characteristics hindering the process of appropriate agricultural practice. This study tries to examine the physico-chemical characteristics of soil in Tangail district, Bangladesh, and evaluate the scope of agriculture.

Place and Duration of Study: Entire soil sample was collected from three major zones (Bhuapur, Gopalpur and Tangail Sadar Upazilla) of Tangail district, Bangladesh during the period of September, 2013 to July, 2014.

Methodology: Random quadrate methods were used to collect soil samples. Collected samples were dried at room temperature, mixed carefully, crushed and sieved by 20 mesh net and analyzed soil texture, bulk density, soil pH, organic matter, total N, available P, K, and S. Entire analysis was conducted twice and average value of results was considered for calculation.

Results: It is revealed that, the soil texture varied largely In the three study zones, Tangail Sadar soil is mainly sandy clay loam, Bhuapur and Gopalpur Upazilla are silt loam and loam texture respectively. The mean bulk density is lower in Tangail Sadar (0.093) and higher in Bhuapur (5.019) and Gopalpur (4.706), which indicate soil compactness. However the pH of the three study zones were 5.70, 6.22 and 6.28, which is suitable for some crop cultivation, but the entire study area lacks soil macronutrients.

Conclusion: Adequate fertilizers are required to cultivate crops in these zones. Beside chemical fertilizer, organic fertilizer should also be used for retention of soil organic contents.