The influence of fertilizers used in Gaza Strip’s agricultural practices on the soil quality

<p>Salahaldin M A Abuabdou</p>

The influence of fertilizers used in Gaza Strip’s agricultural practices on the soil quality

Salahaldin M A Abuabdou

Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia

: J Plant Physiol Pathol

Abstract

The Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture started the agricultural investment in some free settlements in Gaza Strip since 2008. The proposed areas to be planted and the proposed crops were chosen randomly without any researches to study the expected adverse impacts of these agricultural projects on the environmental components. This research aimed to study the surface soil or (topsoil) for one of free settlement lands in Gaza Strip which used for agriculture, using physical, chemical and biological tests to identify the properties of the soil. The experimental data was analyzed for group of plants and trees soil samples. Sixteen (16) soil samples were collected for eight types of plants and trees equally; two appropriate depths were chosen for each soil sample according to the root depth (15 and 30 cm for plants, and 30 and 60 cm for trees). The 16 samples were tested in term of acidity, salinity, (N-P-K) nutrients concentrations, sieve analysis, water moisture, hydraulic conductivity and organic content. It is found that acidity degree for most soil samples tended to be basic; they ranged between (7-9), most of them have similar salinity for the two depths ranging between 130-340 μS/cm except the cucumber land soil which have higher salinity, the total concentrations of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus ranged between 25-85 mg/kg, 30-85 mg/kg and 0-12 mg/kg respectively, which are considered very low comparing with the essential concentration of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus in soil which are 15 g/kg, 10 g/kg and 2 g/kg respectively. Sieve analysis showed that all soil samples have the same physical characteristics and thus one represented soil sample was tested in term of hydraulic conductivity and had a result of 7.7E-3 cm/sec, the water content ranged between 2-6% for all samples and finally the organic content was ranged between 0-0.74% which considered very low.