The college of agriculture farm at Sohag, South Valley University lies in El-Kawsar town, about 15 Km east of Sohag city. It is a part of the eastern desert plateau that borders Sohag governorate from the eastern side. The area understudy is divided into two locations near the industrial region. Twenty-one soil profiles, representing 293 faddans, were selected for this study to give some information about some morphological, physical and chemical properties of soils and to identify soil taxonomic units for this area with a special reference to their suitability for irrigation and also for some main crops.
Based on the morphological and analytical soil properties, the studied soil profiles were classified down to the family level, according to Soil Taxonomy as: a) coarse loamy over sandy skeletal, mixed (calcareous), hyperthermic or sandy-skeletal, carbonatic, hyperthermic or sandy – skeletal, mixed (calcareous), hyperthermic, Typic Torripsamments, b) coarse-loamy, carbonatic, hyperthermic or loamy-skeletal, carbonatic, hyperthermic, or coarse-loamy, mixed (calcareous), hyperthermic or loamy skeletal, mixed (calcareous), hyperthermic or fine-loamy, mixed (calcareous), hyperthermic, Typic Torriorthents and c) sandy-skeletal, mixed (calcareous), hyperthermic or sandy-skeletal, carbonatic, hyperthermic or loamy-skeletal, mixed (calcareous), hyperthermic or loamy-skeletal, carbobatic, hyperthermic or clayey over sandy-skeletal, mixed (calcareous), hyperthermic, Typic Haplocalcids.
Results showed obtained reveal that all the soils under consideration are slightly or moderately suitable for irrigation (S2 or S3). Results concerning soil suitability for major field crops, vegetables and fruit trees suggest that olives and date palms are the best crops for soils of the first location (S1, S2 and S3) followed by watermelon, sesame, sorghum, guava, barley, millets, wheat and alfalfa. Soybean, potato, tomato, onion, green pepper, beans and citrus are considered unsuitable crops (N1 and N2). Olives, date palms, sesame and safflower are the best suitable crops for the second location (S2 and S3) followed by sorghum, guava, millets, wheat, barley, alfalfa and maize. Sunflowers, soybean, citrus, potato, tomato, onion, green pepper and beans are found unsuitable crops (N1 and N2) for most soil profiles.