Abstract

Two hundred and ninety five soil samples drawn from 49 villages covering the entire block of Sivagangai in the State of Tamil Nadu were assessed for the total and available micronutrients (Zn, Fe, Mn, and Cu). The total micronutrient status of surface soils in villages of Sivagangai block were highly variable and ranged from 13 to 128, 870 to 11779, 40 to 550 and 20 to 90 ppm for zinc, iron, manganese and copper, respectively. The average values for available Zn, Fe, Mn and Cu varied from 0.36 to 1.44, 10.6 to 65.2, 8.28 to 29.5 and 1.20 to 3.88 ppm, respectively. The data on village level micronutrient status revealed that available zinc appears to be deficient in two-third of the soils in Sivagangai block (74.60 %). The available copper and manganese status were deficient by 4.40 % and 5.1 %, respectively. On the other hand, available iron status of Sivagangai block has shown to be sufficient in all the soil samples derived from the Sivagangai block. The data suggest that micronutrient status decreased with pH, free calcium carbonate and available phosphorous content while the availability of zinc and copper increased with increasing clay content and organic carbon status

Keywords: Micronutrient cations, Soil properties, Surface soil