01 · Nitrogen
pH above 8, 69.1% of samples
the condition · from the survey
“Above pH 8, surface urea leaves as ammonia before the crop can use it. What dissolves moves down with the irrigation water.”
From van.com.pk · Home · the 3 losses
تیسرا کھاتہTeesra Khata · your area’s soil account, in Urdu
Soil Atlas · Punjab
770,160 samples. 1 condition.
VAN built these maps from the data, so the soil can be seen and acted on.
▸ The map plays through 8 readings, then rests on phosphorus. Pick a reading, hover a square for its district and value, tap one to hold that district.
NutrientsThe ground
▸ Pick an analyte · hover · tap for a district
Phosphorus, available · ppm · rust at 3 ppm and below, gold at 7.5, green from 12; Punjab calls below 7 low and 15 adequate
3.012.0 ppm
7.5
Each square shows the median of the samples taken inside it. Switch the reading and watch the same ground re-colour. 4,911 cells of 0.05°.
Source · Punjab soil testing programme · 36 district workbooks · 770,160 valid samples · c. 2016–2018. Read this before quoting ›
Reading it · Phosphorus
97.9% of samples are below 15 ppm, the adequate level.
- The colour
- Rust at 3 ppm and below, gold at 7.5, green from 12; Punjab calls below 7 low and 15 adequate. Half of Punjab’s samples read below 6.4 ppm, the median.
- Why it matters for the crop
- Phosphorus carries energy inside the plant and builds the root. It decides how fast a seedling puts down roots, how many tillers wheat makes, and how well the crop sets and fills. Most of the damage is done in the first weeks and cannot be undone later.
- What Punjab’s ground does to it
- Calcareous soil binds phosphate with free calcium and takes most of it back before the root arrives.
Sulfur has no map, because it was never measured. See the analyte list below.
Punjab tested 770,160 soil samples for pH, organic matter, phosphorus, potash, calcium carbonate and 5 micronutrients. Read together, they describe 1 soil: alkaline, calcareous, very low in organic matter, short of phosphorus, potash, zinc and boron in most of them, and never tested for sulfur.
Reading Punjab, all 36 districts · 770,160 samples▸ press a reading to draw the map on it
Sulfur0samples testednever measured
The big figure is the share of samples past Punjab's own working threshold. The label shows where the province median, the typical field, falls on VAN's 5-band soil-test table, the one printed on a VAN soil report. The mean is shown beside it; a few very high samples pull the mean up, so the share and the label can disagree.
Source · Punjab soil testing programme · 36 district workbooks · 770,160 valid samples · c. 2016–2018. Deficiency shares are of samples below Punjab’s working thresholds, not a diagnosis of any field.
Punjab, and only Punjab. All 770,160 samples come from the province's own 36 district workbooks. Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan were never surveyed at this depth, which is itself a finding about how Pakistan knows its own soil. Punjab carries most of the country's cropped area, so Punjab's figures carry the national argument, though they are not national figures.
The map shows 8 readings in 2 groups: 4 nutrients a partner formulates against, and 4 that describe the soil they land in. Pick a reading above or in the matrix below to change the map.
36 districts
36 districts, 1 gradient.
Every district a row, every parameter a column, every cell on VAN's own 5-band scale. Sort by a column to see who is worst on it, search for your own, and tap a cell to take that district and that parameter to the map above.
| 770,160 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13,330 | ||||||||
| 23,220 | ||||||||
| 16,700 | ||||||||
| 27,063 | ||||||||
| 14,037 | ||||||||
| 17,935 | ||||||||
| 8,536 | ||||||||
| 26,676 | ||||||||
| 28,703 | ||||||||
| 27,501 | ||||||||
| 20,887 | ||||||||
| 12,002 | ||||||||
| 11,963 | ||||||||
| 51,556 | ||||||||
| 24,614 | ||||||||
| 28,233 | ||||||||
| 18,131 | ||||||||
| 10,752 | ||||||||
| 14,757 | ||||||||
| 13,231 | ||||||||
| 25,557 | ||||||||
| 31,103 | ||||||||
| 42,094 | ||||||||
| 23,642 | ||||||||
| 33,871 | ||||||||
| 19,972 | ||||||||
| 9,396 | ||||||||
| 25,164 | ||||||||
| 14,757 | ||||||||
| 21,511 | ||||||||
| 11,092 | ||||||||
| 20,392 | ||||||||
| 31,684 | ||||||||
| 12,869 | ||||||||
| 12,032 | ||||||||
| 25,197 |
Each cell: the median, coloured by band; the mean below it in small type.How badCriticalWeakAverageModerateHealthy
Worst overall weighs the 8 main columns equally; tap a column head to sort by that reading. The bands are VAN's own 5-band soil-test table, the same one printed on a VAN soil report, read against the district median, the typical field; the mean sits under each value. Calcium carbonate has no row in that table, so it carries a value and no colour. Copper and manganese have 3 bands there rather than 5. N.d. = not determined; Jhelum returns no valid zinc. * Copper in Faisalabad, Jhang, Chiniot and Toba Tek Singh reads far below every other district, and iron far below most, which points to a different laboratory method rather than different soil. * Phosphorus samples in Kasur read 2.5 to 5 times the samples within 1 km of them across the district line (median 14.5 ppm against Lahore 4.2 and Okara 5.9; 16.6 against Nankana Sahib 3.2), and all 4 of its tehsils read the same, which points the same way. They are shown as surveyed, without a colour band. Tap any cell to take that district and that parameter to the map and the readings above.
Province
Punjab, all 36 districts
770,160 samples · median / mean: pH 8.20 / 8.22 · OM 0.62 / 0.61% · P 6.4 / 6.6 ppm · K 126 / 132 ppm · Zn 0.84 / 1.25 ppm · B 0.48 / 0.59 ppm · CaCO₃ 6.00 / 6.53%
pH769,645 in range · count per bin
Organic matter769,843 in range · count per bin
Available phosphorus770,142 in range · count per bin
Share below Punjab’s working threshold
shares of samples, not a diagnosis of any field
Texture, as recorded
share of samples by class
loam78.8% · 596,936
sandy loam10.7% · 81,427
clay loam6.5% · 49,492
heavy loam1.3% · 9,693
heavy clay0.5% · 3,635
sand0.4% · 3,139
other or unclear1.7% · 13,241
Source · Punjab soil testing programme · 36 district workbooks · 770,160 valid samples · c. 2016–2018. Thresholds: Punjab working thresholds: organic matter low < 0.86%, available P low < 7 ppm (adequate ≥ 15), available K low < 180 ppm, Zn low < 1.0 ppm, B low < 0.5 ppm; EC > 4 dS/m saline.
1 level down
Pick your district above to see the ground inside it.
The survey is not only district averages. It carries 4,911 cells of about 5.5 by 4.8 kilometres, roughly 6,500 acres each, and every district has its own. That is closer to a neighbourhood than to a district, and it is where a district average starts to fall apart.
Relations
How 1 variable moves another, and where it does not.
Pick what to group the samples by and what to read across the groups.
▸ change X and Y
X · group the samples by
Y · and read the mean of
Mean calcium carbonate by pH band · Punjab
The 4 bands shown cover 99.9% of Punjab’s samples.
Holds
Carbonate drives alkalinity
Province series · 3.41 → 4.86 → 6.91 → 7.41 % CaCO₃
Mean calcium carbonate rises monotonically across every pH band. The alkalinity comes from calcium carbonate (lime).
Source · Punjab soil testing programme · 36 district workbooks · 770,160 valid samples · c. 2016–2018. Observational; establishes conditions, not mechanism.
The 6 pairs with a verdict:
These are observational district data, not a controlled experiment. 3 relationships hold cleanly, 1 holds with a limit, 1 is reported without explanation, and 1 widely assumed relationship does not appear.
Outlook
Where Punjab’s soil potash is heading.
A projection from the 2016–2018 soil tests, on VAN’s own soil scale. Move the year to see the best, average and worst case.
PUNJAB SOIL POTASH OUTLOOK
In 2026, if nothing changes: average case 116 ppm (Average), worst case 102 ppm (Average), best case 120 ppm (Average). The average case drops from Average to Weak around 2036; worst case 2027; best case 2044.
Punjab soil potash (ppm, available K) projected from the 2016-18 soil tests of 770,160 samples. The coloured bands are VAN's own soil-test scale, the one printed on a VAN soil report: Critical below 50 ppm, Weak 50 to 100, Average 100 to 150, Moderate 150 to 200, Healthy above 200. 100 ppm is where soil moves from Average to Weak. Best and worst case: a 1 in 10 chance the result is better or worse.
Source: Tahir Abbas, Soil Poverty Series No. 1, Punjab's Potash (2026). Start 130 ppm, weighted by cultivated area (the Atlas weighs by samples: median 126, mean 132). Rate of loss set to SFRI monitoring sites, 2003-09. Projections, not measurements.
The analyte list
13 determinations, and no test for sulfur.
The Punjab survey records the same 13 readings in every district, and sulfur is not one of them. The nutrient VAN’s programmes place twice in wheat alone was never on the testing schedule.
The 13 determinations, and 1 that is missing.
province meansSaturation percentage36.2%
Texture classloam · 78.8% of texture-tested samples
Electrical conductivity2.07 dS/m
pH8.22
Organic matter0.61%
Phosphorus, available6.62 ppm
Potash, available132 ppm
Calcium carbonate6.53%
Zinc1.25 ppm
Copper0.94 ppm
Iron3.42 ppm
Manganese1.90 ppm
Boron0.59 ppm
Sulfurnot determined
Sulfur, not determined
Sulfur was left off the testing schedule, so no result for it exists. Because it is never measured, it is never reported as deficient and it never enters a fertilizer plan.
Sulfur is in VAN’s published programmes. The wheat plan alone places Green Sulfur at germination and again at early growth.
Source · Punjab soil testing programme · 36 district workbooks · 770,160 valid samples · c. 2016–2018. Copper, iron, manganese and saturation percentage are province means from the same survey. Texture is the share of the commonest recorded class, out of the 757,563 samples that carry a texture class at all; 12,597 of the 770,160 do not, and are not counted either way.
VAN and the condition
What VAN builds against it.
02 · Phosphate
Calcareous soil. Mean CaCO₃ 6.53%, rising with pH
the condition · from the survey
“Calcareous soil binds phosphate with free calcium and takes most of it back before the root arrives.”
From van.com.pk · Home · the 3 losses
03 · Potash
87.8% below 180 ppm. Lowest on sandy loam
the condition · from the survey
“Pakistan applies 83 kg of nitrogen for every 1 kg of potash, so the crop draws potash from the soil’s own reserve.”
From van.com.pk · Home · the 3 losses
04 · Zinc
59.0% below 1.0 ppm. Falls as pH rises
the condition · from the survey
“In Punjab’s alkaline soils, zinc is chemically fixed, making it unavailable to roots even when total soil Zn is adequate.”
From van.com.pk · Wheat programme · deficiency notes
05 · Organic matter
90.2% below 0.86%. Mean 0.61%
the condition · from the survey
“Concentrated humate with fulvic acid and potash for fertigation and foliar use on soils under 1% organic matter.”
From van.com.pk · Formulation library · BIO-H50F
06 · Boron
51.7% below 0.5 ppm
the condition · from the survey
“Vital Potash, N 11% · K₂O 44%, coated with boron in 2 forms.”
From van.com.pk · Products
07 · Sulfur
Not determined in any of 770,160 samples
the condition · from the survey
“Sulfur Coated Urea · N 32% min · S 13% min. Green Sulfur · Sulfur 70% WDG.”
From van.com.pk · Products
Condition figures: Punjab soil testing programme · 36 district workbooks · 770,160 valid samples · c. 2016–2018.
What this ground costs the country
On this soil, adding more product does not solve the problem.
Punjab's ground is alkaline and calcareous. 96.1% of samples above pH 7.5, mean carbonate 6.53%. Across Pakistan, nutrient applied per acre has risen by 68% since 2000 while wheat yield rose by 31%. About 29 of every 100 kg of nitrogen added leave the field in the harvest.
Sources · nutrient per acre of arable land 1999-2000 to 2023-24: World Bank; wheat yield: Pakistan Economic Survey; nitrogen in the harvest: FAOSTAT, Cropland Nutrient Balance, December 2025 release (2023).
What changes the outcome is the form the nutrient arrives in and where it is put, not the tonnage.
The nutrition Pakistan pays for →Soil Poverty Series · No. 1
Punjab’s soil potash: most model runs cross 100 ppm between 2027 and 2044.
A report by Tahir Abbas built on this Atlas: what 5 crops take out of Punjab’s soil each year, what fertilizer, manure and water put back, and when the Punjab average falls below 100 ppm if nothing changes.
Read the report →Read this before quoting
Method & caveats
36 district workbooks from the Punjab soil testing programme, each row 1 georeferenced sample carrying district, tehsil, markaz, union council and mauza identifiers alongside the laboratory determinations. Every row was read; no sub-sampling. Records without a valid pH were excluded; 770,160 remained. Province figures are weighted by district sample count.
Age
The sampling window is roughly 2016–2018. These figures describe a structural baseline, not present-day status.
Observational
Survey data with no controlled treatments. It establishes conditions with very high confidence. It cannot establish mechanism; for that, controlled and peer-reviewed work is the appropriate evidence.
Thresholds
Deficiency shares use Punjab’s working thresholds: organic matter below 0.86%, available phosphorus below 7 ppm (adequate at 15), available potash below 180 ppm, zinc below 1.0 ppm, boron below 0.5 ppm.
Corrections
1 column in the Sheikhupura workbook was repeated by mistake; it was corrected before the figures were worked out. Jhelum returns no valid zinc data. Physically impossible values were bounded before averaging.
Bounds. Physically impossible values were bounded before averaging: pH 0–14, OM 0–10%, P 0–200 ppm, CaCO3 0–100%, K 0–3000 ppm, Zn 0–50 ppm, B 0–20 ppm, EC 0–100 dS/m.
770,160 valid samples across 36 districts. Analytes determined: Saturation percentage · Texture class · Electrical conductivity · pH · Organic matter · Phosphorus (available) · Potash (available) · Calcium carbonate · Zinc · Copper · Iron · Manganese · Boron. Not determined: Sulfur.
Your own field
A survey median is not your soil test.
These are district medians of samples taken c. 2016–2018. For a plan against your own field, VAN works from your soil analysis. Ask on WhatsApp, or send 500 g of soil to Sample Reception.