Abhinav Aditya Das¹*, GP Leelavathy¹, B Vajantha¹, G Prasad Rao² and N Venkaiah²

¹Department of Soil Science, Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India
²ITE&C Department, Andhra Pradesh Space Application Centre, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India

*Corresponding Author: Abhinav Aditya Da, Department of Soil Science, Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Received: December 24, 2025; Published: December 31, 2025

Abstract

Declining soil fertility and pronounced spatial variability of nutrients remain major constraints to sustainable agricultural productivity, particularly under intensive and resource-limited farming systems in semi-arid regions. The study aimed to assess and map the spatial distribution of available macronutrients (N, P, K, Ca, Mg and S) in the surface soils of Upparapalli village to support site-specific nutrient management. A GPS-based grid soil sampling approach (170 × 170 m) was adopted, resulting in 200 surface soil samples (0-15 cm). Standard laboratory procedures were used to estimate available nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, exchangeable calcium, and magnesium. Spatial interpolation and thematic nutrient maps were generated using GIS with the inverse distance weighting (IDW) technique. Soils exhibited low to medium available nitrogen, with more than 96% of the area classified as nitrogen-deficient. Available phosphorus and potassium were predominantly in the medium category, with localized high concentrations linked to fertilizer use and soil mineralogy. Secondary nutrients sulphur, calcium, and magnesium were largely sufficient across the study area, though sulphur showed high spatial variability. The study revealed substantial spatial heterogeneity in soil macronutrient distribution, underscoring the inadequacy of uniform fertilizer recommendations for the region. GIS-based soil fertility mapping provides a robust decision-support tool for developing site-specific nutrient management strategies, enabling efficient fertilizer use, improved soil health, and enhanced sustainability of agricultural production systems.

 Keywords: GIS; Macronutrients; Soil Fertility; Site Specific Nutrient Management; Spatial Variability

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Citation

Citation: Abhinav Aditya Das., et al. “GIS-Based Analysis of Macronutrient Distribution in Agricultural Soils of Upparapalli Village, Andhra Pradesh".Acta Scientific Agriculture 10.1 (2026): 38-48.

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Copyright: © 2026 Abhinav Aditya Das., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.