Assessing Soil Quality of Rice Intensive Cultivation Area of Nigeria Using Relative Soil Quality Index.

The need for soil quality assessment is becoming more popular because of the effect of land use on soil productivity. The flood plains in Nigeria are intensively being cultivated for rice production since demand for rice by the teeming population is ever increasing. Therefore, this study presents an approach to assess the soil quality by aggregate indices using Relative Soil Quality Index (RSQI) proposed by Ho Ngoc Pham. The RSQI is integrated from individual indices and the weighting factors are calculated from the analytical laboratory data and the environmental standards, respectively. In this study, the RSQI was applied to assess soil quality of rice intensive cultivation areas of flood plains of rivers Kaduna and Taraba in the North Central Nigeria. The indices were categorized into three levels: good, moderate and poor. The correlation between the assessment and rice grain yield is discussed.