Impacts of Topsoil Removal due to Brick Manufacturing on Soil Properties of Agricultural Lands at Nagarpur Upazila of Tangail, Bangladesh

The study was conducted to compare soil nutrients status between agricultural land and top soil removal land from surrounding area of brick field due to brick manufacturing at Nagarpur region, Tangail, Bangladesh, during the period of July to December 2018. Total 30 samples were collected from three different brickfields area namely S1, S2, S3. Among them 10 samples were collected from each site whereas 5 samples from productive agricultural land and 5 samples from removal land at a depth 0-15 cm. The overall study stated that the status of % organic matter (OM), total nitrogen (N), available phosphorus (P), exchangeable potassium (K), available sulfur (S), available zinc (Zn), available boron (B), magnesium (Mg) and calcium (Ca) were decreased in top soil removal land. The mean status of these nutrients were very low (0.92%), very low (0.053%), very low (3.34 µg g-1 soil), very low (0.09 meq100g-1 soil), optimum (22.8 µg g-1 soil), very high (3.80µg g-1 soil), low (0.28 µg g-1 soil), optimum (1.26 meq100g-1 soil) and very low (1.25 meq100g-1 soil) respectively in top soil removal land. On the other hand these were medium (2.49%), low (0.14%), very low (4.82 µg g-1 sol), low (0.16 meq100g-1 soil), high (35.07µg g-1 soil), very high (4.14 µg g-1 soil), medium (0.42 µg g-1 soil), very high (4.35 meq100g-1 soil) and high (6.36 meq100g-1 soil) respectively in adjacent agricultural land. The cropping patterns of the agricultural land were Mustard- Boro rice-Jute but Fellow-Fellow-Jute in top soil removal land. The economic analysis showed a gross of 1845.24 US$ net loss per hectare per annum of crops yield due to top soil removal for brick manufacturing in the brick field.