Soil available zinc and its relationship with soil properties in rice soils of West Bengal, India

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between soil zinc and soil properties for which soil samples were collected from different agroclimatic zones of West Bengal covering five districts and eleven blocks. Soils were collected from rice growing fields across these districts. pH of the soil ranged from 5.14-7.81 while the organic carbon content ranged from 0.65-2.12 per cent with a mean value of 1.30 per cent. The CEC of the soil ranged from 6.51-21.23 meq 100g-1 of soil while clay content ranged between 17.68-42.29 per cent. DTPA extracted soil Zn value ranged from 0.55-1.92 mg kg-1 with a mean value of 1.08 mg kg-1 . The availability of Zn in the rice soils were positively correlated with the organic carbon, EC, clay content and CEC and negatively correlated with pH, amorphous Al and Mn oxides of the soils.