SPATIAL VARIABILITY OF SOIL PROPERTIES IN YAKURR LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, SOUTHEAST NIGERIA

The status and spatial variability of soil properties across agrarian communities in Yakurr Local Government Area, Southeast Nigeria were assessed and soil management strategies suggested for limiting soil properties. Nine communities were identified within the study area and soil samples collected from young fallow lands measuring 40 m by 40 m at depths of 0 – 20 cm and 20 – 40 cm to represent surface and subsurface soils respectively. The interpolation of the area was done using the deterministic methods of inverse distance weighting (IDW) in ArcGIS 10.2.2 software. The soils were sandy loam to loamy sand with the coefficients of variation (CV) of particle sizes ranked as clay> silt> sand while soil pH ranged between 5.2 and 5.75, and organic matter ranged from 7.4 in Ntamkpo to 20.3 gkg-1 in Idomi with CV of 27.54%. Total N was generally low in the soils with CV of 31.25% in the surface soils and 58.36% in the subsurface soils. Available P and exchangeable basic cations were rated low but with high CVs except for exchangeable K+ and Na+ and ranked as P> Mg> Ca> Na> K. The ECEC was however rated medium with CV of 23.8% in the surface soils. It was however observed, that ECEC and organic matter were among the most spatially variable properties in the area. Intensified soil tests and farmer education were suggested to control the use of agrochemicals while unhealthy practices such as bush burning and unplanned continuous cropping should be checked. The integrated use of calcitic and dolomitic limes with organic inputs, crop rotation and bush fallow systems were also advocated.