Abstract

Soil spatial variability mapping is essential for location-specific, economically optimized fertilizer management, and climate-resilient environment-friendly sustainable agriculture. We developed soil spatial variability maps of district Shaheed Benazirabad, Sindh, Pakistan using advanced geospatial interpolation techniques. Soil samples were collected from 115 locations across the study region, involving all the agriculturally important union councils of four talukas, viz. Daur, Kazi Ahmed, Nawabshah and Sakrand. Moreover, we involved all the important major crops grown in the district by giving due weight during the selection of various farms and their representative composite soil sampling. Our findings revealed that the district Shaheed Benazirabad is characterized by the contrasting presence of different types of soils textures ranging from heavy to light and the dominance of slightly to highly saline soils, with the presence of very high to extremely high saline pockets in taluka Kazi Ahmed and Daur. Moreover, slightly to medium alkaline soils dominated the whole district, with the exception of some strongly alkaline patches. Organic matter was deficient in taluka Sakrand and Daur, however, it was comparatively better in Kazi Ahmed and Nawabshah. Soil P was deficient in the whole district, except for a few areas of Taluka Kazi Ahmed and Daur, while soil K was found deficient to medium in many areas, despite it being adequate in most areas of the district. We recommend the use of these spatial variability maps for site- and/or zone-specific climate resilient practices for better environments and sustainable agriculture.