Mapping of Available Potassium of Upper Egypt Soils Using GIS

Abstract

The main activity in Upper Egypt is agriculture, also potassium is one of the essential nutrients for plant. In the past years, scientists expected that the construction of Nasser High Dam in Aswan, Egypt, would prevent the yearly clay sediments reach in potassium that comes with the Nile River flooding water and may negatively affect the future of agriculture on the river banks of the Nile. Therefore, this study was conducted to monitor the levels of available potassium in the soils of the Upper Egypt governorates. 110 samples were taken from the surface and sub-surface layers from 55 sites in the governorates of Aswan, Luxor, Qena, Sohag, Assiut and Minya. The results showed that, the expectation was not totally wrong, since about 2% of soil samples has low (<135 mg/kg) available potassium. However, 30% of them were medium (135-335) and 68% of soil samples were high (>335 mg/kg). The data was drowned in GIS maps to be helpful for the grower and as a record of the lands of Upper Egypt, it monitors the situation in history.