Calculating Soil Quality Index for Biomass Production Based on Soil Chemical Properties

Soil quality has been regarded as an important factor for maintaining sustainability of ecosystem. Main purpose of this research was i) to select minimum factor for predicting biomass, and ii) to calculate soil quality index for biomass according to soil chemical properties. Result showed that soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), soil organic matter (SOM), cation exchange capacity (CEC), and available phosphorus are minimum data set for calculating biomass production in soil. Selected representative soil chemical properties were evaluated for soil quality index and rated from 1 to 5 (1 is the best for biomass production). Percentage of each grade in terms of biomass production in national wide was 14.52, 35.23, 33.03, 6.47, 10.75% respectively. Although, only soil chemical properties were evaluated for calculating optimum soil quality, result of this research can be useful to understand basic protocol of soil quality assessment in national wide.