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Contents: 1. Earth and earth crust chemical and elemental composition. 2. Soil forming rocks and minerals. 3. Weathering processes and soil formation. 4. Soil reactions (pH) and its buffering capacity. 5. Soil organic matter and its chemistry. 6. Soil colloids and their chemistry. 7. Plant nutrients, their sources and transformation chemistry in soil. 8. Ion exchange reactions and chemical equilibria in soil. 9. Soil biology and chemistry of related soil processes. 10. Problem soils. 11. Chemistry of acid soils. 12. Chemistry of salt-affected soils. 13. Chemistry of submerged or waterlogged soil. 14. Soil, air and water pollution.

This book is primarily supposed to be used as a textbook on Soil Chemistry and Plant Nutrients. This has been written to fulfil the requirements of the students studying agriculture at the undergraduate level of all agricultural Universities or other educational institutes in India and abroad. However, postgraduate student and research scholars of soil science and allied field may also equally be benefitted. This book is dealing with fourteen chapters covering chemical and elemental composition of Earth and Earth crust; rocks and minerals, their weathering processes leading to soil formation; soil reactions (pH) and its buffering capacity; soil organic matter; inorganic soil colloids such as silicate clays and others; essential plant nutrients, their sources and transformation chemistry in soil; organic manures, chemical fertilizers and biofertilizers, ion exchange reactions and chemical equilibria in soil, soil biology and chemistry of related soil processes; soil erosion and its impact on soil fertility; problem soils such as acid soil, salt-affected soil, submerged or waterlogged soil.

All these aspects have been dealt from chemistry point of view with sufficient explanation and mechanisms of certain processes, wherever it is applicable, in order to make the subject more meaningful, logical, simple, and understandable to the learners as well as the teachers. Finally, it deals with present day burning issue of environmental pollution due to intensive and extensive agricultural practices leading to soil contamination with pesticides, fertilizers, and other hazardous compounds which, in turn, cause air and water pollution too. With my vast teaching and research experience that started from 1985, The book has been prepared in such a manner that students may find their all sorts of queries in soil science from chemistry point of view through a holistic approach. The chapters have been arranged systematically, so that the readers will enter the domain of soil chemistry in a proper way step by step. Model questions, both subjective and objective type, have been incorporated at the end of each chapter; so that students may be able to get an idea about the pattern of questions which are being asked during various competitive examinations.