PANAMA SOILS ZONING BASED ON NUTRIENT LEVELS

Abstract

In Panama, it is necessary to have digital maps on the status of soil fertility. The objective of this work was to develop soil fertility maps of the Republic of Panama, based on soil tests done in the Soil Laboratory of the Agricultural Research Institute of Panama (IDIAP).   A database was prepared with the results of analysis of samples from 1985 to 2003, using the ACCES 2000^®. Since the sites of origin of the samples were not georeferenced, we used the map database of the General Contraloria of the Republic of Panama to locate the geographical position in UTM coordinates. To locate the samples, the names of 1767 locations were taken as a basis. Since some points overlapped many samples, a representative sample point was established according to its frequency. The database with the results of the fertility analysis was included in the ARC/VIEW^® under point format. Fifteen digital maps were generated from interpolation result of soil variables aluminum, organic matter, copper, iron, aluminum saturation, pH, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, manganese, zinc, changeable base content, content of microelements and texture. The classification of the legend for each map is a function of the critical levels used by the laboratory. Generally, the soils are deficient in phosphorus, zinc, calcium and organic matter, with high acidity and high aluminum saturation.