Detection of suitable soils for Zero-Till Wheat Cultivation in Pakistan using GITs

Site specific farming requires better understanding of variability of soil patterns. All types of soils are not suitable for zero-till wheat cultivation after rice harvesting. The normal soils with silt clay loam or lighter soil texture, well drained and with no salinity are the best suited for zero-till wheat cultivation. Moderately suitable soils are clay/silty clay or silty clay loam and lighter with drainage problem. And the unsuitable soils are saline and poorly drained with hard pan. Yet, zero-tillage is being promoted on all kinds of soils in Pakistan partly because no data are available which delineate unsuitable soils from those which are suitable. This research deals with the delineation of suitable soils for zero-till wheat cultivation in irrigated soils of Gujranwala, Pakistan. The analyses are based on remote sensing and field data using a geographical information system (GIS). We have examined how different remote sensing indices work for salinity prone lands delineation. The study has suggested new indices for assessing salinity. We have analyzed the several indices, vegetation indices, water Indices were also analyzed as concurrent indicators, especially the ratio of the signals received in the forth spectral band to thermal IR give more accurate results. Soil texture, bulk density (BD) and ground water quality data were gathered from secondary sources field measurements were interpolated to surfaces and converted in to three classes and overly analysis capability of Arc GIS were used to integrate all parameters for final map preparation.