Soil Chemical Analysis of Kazi and Kazi Organic Tea Garden and Compared to Ordinary Tea Gardens of Bangladesh

Abstract

Tea is grown in Bangladesh under marginal climatic and soil conditions. Its production is greatly influenced by many physical, chemical, biological and natural factors. The increasing land use intensity without adequate and balanced use of chemical fertilizers and with little or no use of organic manure has caused severe fertility deterioration of our soils resulting in stagnating or even declining of crop productivity. The need of the hour is to achieve substantially higher crop yield than the present yield levels from our limited land resources on a sustainable basis. A feasibility study was carried out of one and only organic tea garden namely Kazi & Kazi Tea Estate at Panchaghar and compared to ordinary tea gardens located at Sylhet namely Zareen Tea Estate, Nurjahan Tea Estate and Malnichara Tea Estate as secondary data to investigate the fertility status of soil. Results of the present study showed that soil solutions were acidic in nature in all seasons. Medium to high soil organic matter, medium to high available iron and phosphorous, and low availability of potash showed that soils were not sufficiently fertile for crop production. Student t-test values of all the parameters with control sample showed statistically significant results for SOM and available P. The critical values have been fixed at 0.1% for N and 1% for OM, 10 μg/g for P, 80 μg/g for K, 25 μg/g for Mg, 90 μg/g for Ca, 2 μg/g for Zn and 20 μg/g for S. The nutrient status is much higher in Kazi & Kazi organic tea estate in compared to other ordinary tea estates in Bangladesh.