Soil fertility status of Surha Tal land soils of Ballia district, Uttar Pradesh

Surha Tal is one of the largest floodplains of river Ganga in eastern Uttar Pradesh. In general, soils of Surha Tal are fertile and sustain higher productivity of kharif rice, wheat, maize, mustard and vegetables. Earlier Diwakar and Singh (1992 a&b, 1993) studied the genesis, mineralogy, aggregation etc. of the Tal land of Bihar but virtually no information is available about soil fertility status of Tal land and in particular Surha Tal of Ballia district and hence present study was conducted.