Impact of Agricultural Land Management Practices on Soil Quality in Tatkon Township, Myanmar

Abstract

In Myanmar, agricultural land has been utilized intensively for many purposes regardless of proper management, which is challenging to sustainable agricultural production. Farmer are typically grown rice, sunflower and maize based cropping pattern in Tatkon Township. This research aimed to evaluate agricultural land management practices on some soil properties with the Soil Quality Indicators (SQI) in the study area. For the study area, there were six land management practices in a year, namely, rice mono-cropping (L1), sunflower-based two crops (L2), maize-based two crops (L3), sunflower-based three crops (L4), maize-based three crops (L5), and sunflower-chickpea (L6). The soil samples were collected with grid point method from February to April 2023. Twenty-four soil samples were collected from six land management practices for soil analysis. Then, soil bulk density, soil organic matter (SOM), soil pH and electrical conductivity (EC), Total N, available P, cation exchangeable capacity (CEC), and exchangeable K, available Ca, Mg, and Na were analysis at YAU. Data were analyzed by Statistix (version 8). The results show that different land management practices were statistical differences in some soil properties at P = .01 and P = .05, respectively. L1 obtained the highest bulk density, while the lowest values were in CEC, SOM, available P, exchangeable K, available Ca, and available Mg content. L2 possessed the highest CEC value, available K, and available Ca content, whereas the lowest in EC and total N percent. L3 obtained the highest EC value, total N percent, and lowest soil pH. L4 possessed the highest available Na content. L5 obtained the highest soil pH and available P content. L6 possessed the highest SOM percent and available Mg, while the lowest bulk density, EC, and available Na content. According to the defined soil quality indicators, sustainable land management practices for agricultural production in the study area showed in the order of L2 > L6 > L5 > L3 > L4 > L1. Therefore, this study highlighted sunflower-based two crops (L2) had the optimum land management practices for sustainable agricultural production and maintaining soil fertility. Considering the most effective and affordable soil analysis, the available Ca parameter could be chosen because of CEC, which is a soil chemical indicator showing how soil fertility status, is the most strongly correlated with available Ca among other correlated soil properties. This study suggested that rice mono-cropping have lower soil fertility than other land management practices. This study can help for local farmer in implementing soil fertility management and effective crop management program for long term soil quality.