Spatial Variability of Total Nitrogen, pH, and Organic Carbon in Organic and Inorganic Farming

Abstract

AbstractThere have been significant efforts to transform traditional farming into organic farming practices. It is believed that this transformation would guarantee the long term production while it also maintains the environment. Studying the differences between these two practices in the form of maps can be useful for understanding spatially how effective the transformation has been achieved. This is because soil varies in space. The main aim of this research is to study the spatial variability of Total Nitrogen, pH and Organic Carbon in the soil. Methods used in this study consists of : (a) data capture; (b) data input in GIS; (c) processing data using Kriging: (d) analysis and presentation of results. The results showed that : (a)Soil  organic content in the study area was generally low suggesting the future warning; (b) Using pH, Organic Carbon and Total N as indicators of assessing the differences between organic and inorganic practices, indicating that there has not been significant different between these practices; (c)The analysis of spatial variability using Kriging in GIS environment could uncover the spatial variability and suggested the way of managing the  study area. Keywords: organic farming, inorganic farming, spatial variability, soil properties