Characterization of Cultivated Soils of Neogal Watershed in North-West Himalayas and their Suitability for Major Crops

Abstract

Six typical pedons representing cultivated soils of Neogal watershed in North-West Himalayas occurring on river terraces and hill slopes viz. Baun, Talinu, Phata, Gopalpur, Bhattu and Mahadev were studied for their morphological characteristics and physico-chemical properties and suitability for locally preferred crops. The soils are acidic in reaction, non-calcareous, coarse to fine loamy in particle size class, mixed in mineralogy and medium to very deep and have thermic soil temperature and udic soil moisture regimes. The soil texture, pH (1:2.5), organic carbon, CEC, base saturation, water retention at 33 and 1500 kPa ranged from loamy sand to clay loam, 5.2 to 6.2, 3.2 to 9.5 g kg−1, 4.9 to 14.3 cmol (p+) kg−1, 46 to 77%, 4.2 to 31.2% and 2.6 to 16.8%, respectively. Taxonomically, the soils on moderately sloping hill slopes and gently sloping streams side (Baun and Phata) belong to Typic Udorthents and Typic Udipsamments and those on gently to moderately sloping river terraces (Talinu, Gopalpur, Bhattu and Mahadev) are classified as Typic Dystrudepts and Typic Hapludalfs subgroups, respectively. The agricultural land of the watershed qualifies for land capability class III and land irrigability classes 3 and 4. Mahadev soils are highly suitable for locally preferred crops viz. paddy, maize, wheat and potato but Bhattu soils for maize, potato and wheat and Talinu soils for maize and wheat only. The remaining soils are suitable to marginally suitable for these crops. Mahadev, Bhattu and Gopalpur soils are highly suitable to suitable, while other soils are moderately to marginally suitable for tea gardening. The coefficient of improvement of soils varied from 1.7 to 3.2 for agricultural crops and 1.5 to 5.2 for plantation crops (tea) and suggests for adopting judicious soil and water management practices to sustain crop productivity on these soils.