ABSTRACT
SOIL CAPABILITY AND SUITABILITY ASSESSMENT OF TUSHKA AREA, EGYPT BY USING DIFFERENT PROGRAMS (ASLE, MICROLEIS AND MODIFIED STORIE INDEX)
Journal: Malaysian Journal of Sustainable Agriculture (MJSA)
Author: Salah Hassanien Abd El-Aziz
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
DOI: 10.26480/mjsa.02.2018.09.15
The present study was undertaken to identify the morphological, physical and chemical characteristics of soils in Tushka, Aswan governorate, Egypt, in order to classify and evaluate them from the agricultural use view point. Tushka area is located in the western desert, upper Egypt. It lies between latitudes of 22° 48′ 00.7″ and 22° 28′ 44.2” N and longitudes of 31° 28′ 07.2″ and 31° 29′ 08.2″ E. The soils of the study area were none to slightly saline (ECe ranged from 0.53 to 6.85 dSm-1). Soil texture was mostly sand, loamy sand and sandy loam. Soil reaction (pH) tended to be mildly to moderately alkaline with a range of 7.6 to 8.1. Calcium carbonate and gypsum contents were very low. The soils were classified as Typic Torripsamments, Typic Torriorthents and Lithic Torriorthents. Most of the soils understudy were suitable for agricultural use. The results revealed that the capability of soils according to ASLE program was good (C2) and fair suitable (C3), moderate suitable (S3) using MicroLEIS (Cervatana model) and good, fair and poor using Modified Storie Index. Most of the selected crops were found to be the best grown ones on soils of the S2 and S3 suitability classes by ASLE program. Also, most of the selected crops were moderately (S3) and marginally suitable (S4) by MicroLEIS-ALMAGRA model. The main limitation factors of the study area for crop production were soil texture and soil depth.
Pages | 09-15 |
Year | 2018 |
Issue | 2 |
Volume | 2 |