Characterization of the Soil Properties of Citrus Orchards in Central India using Remote Sensing and GIS

Nagpur mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco), considered as one of the major commercial fruit crops, is grown in hot, dry and sub-humid bioclimatic region of Central India. Area under this cash crop is highest in the state Maharashtra, but low productivity as compared to other citrus-growing states of India is of a major concern. Information regarding the productive suitable areas for this crop cultivation in the state is lacking in order to address the problem. Hence, a study was conducted in Wardha district of Maharashtra to find out the most suitable soil-site characteristics for citrus orchards to enhance the productivity. In the present investigation, inductive modeling approach is used to derive the required properties. The objective was to compare the soil properties with the established suitability criteria for citrus to minimize soil-related constraints and thus to enhance the quantity as well as quality of the produce. The citrus-grown areas were visually interpreted from merged product of IRS LISS-IV and Cartosat-1 image of the study area. The healthy citrus orchard areas were identified based on normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) values derived from LISS-IV image. The layer which contained the information of higher NDVI values with citrus orchards was overlaid on the soil and slope map of the study area to obtain desired soil and slope information. Results revealed that heavy textured clay soils dominated the healthy citrus orchards. Soil reaction was alkaline (11.49 thousand ha) in majority of the areas followed by neutral (1.75 thousand ha) pH. Orchards were mostly located at very gently sloping condition, and in most of the cases, soils were very deep in nature. The study thus revealed the most suitable physical, fertility and chemical properties of soil and other properties like slope for better management of citrus-growing orchards in Maharashtra.