Available Micronutrient Status of Soybean Growing Soils of Latur District, M.S.

The present investigation was carried out to study the status of major micronutrients in soybean growing soils of Latur district during the year 2009-2010. For this purpose 140 representative soil samples were collected from seven tehsils (20 villages from each tehsil) of soybean growing soils of Latur district. From each village one surface (0-15 cm depth) soil sample was collected and subjected to laboratory for analyzing for some chemical properties and status of available micronutrients viz., Zn, Fe, Mn and Cu. The correlation co-efficient between chemical properties and available nutrients were worked out. The study revealed that the soils were neutral to alkaline in reaction, safe in limit of electrical conductivity low to high in content of organic carbon and non calcareous to calcareous in nature. The soil samples were deficient in available Zn, medium to sufficient in available Mn and sufficient in available Fe and Cu. The data showed that available Zn had significant negative relationship with pH (-0.249^∗) and CaCO₃ (-0.198^∗) and significant positive with EC (0.269^∗∗). Available Fe had significant and positive correlation with EC (0.281^∗∗) and O.C. (0.217^∗) and significant negative with CaC_O3 (-0.291^∗). Available Mn had negative and significant correlation with EC (-0.278^∗∗) while Cu had positive significant relation with EC (0.199^∗) and O.C. (0.310^∗∗).