Current Science

P. Tiwary ¹, T. Bhattacharyya ², C. Mandal ¹, Dipanwita Dasgupta ³, B. Telpande ¹

Affiliations
1 National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning (ICAR), Amravati Road, Nagpur 440 033, IN
2 ICRISAT Development Centre, ICRISAT, Patancheru 502 324, IN
3 National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organization (DST), CGO Complex, 7th Floor, DF Block, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700 064, IN

Abstract

Importance of soil organic carbon (SOC) in maintaining soil productivity and natural ecosystem has been a major concern throughout the globe. SOC in the humid tropical climate becomes more important in view of undulating hilly terrain in the northeastern region of India. The major concern in such landscape is soil erosion and the necessary conservation practices. In the present study, we discuss the technique of pedometric mapping to link SOC and soil loss. The best-fit semi-variogram model for SOC was found to be exponential model (R² = 0.90). The best fit semivariogram models for soil and SOC losses are spherical (R² = 0.95) and exponential (R² = 0.77) respectively. The spatial distribution of SOC, soil and SOC loss was found to be related with topography and different land-use types and showed moderate spatial dependence. With the help of 196 grid observations, the present study shows a threshold limit of 150 kg ha^-1 year^-1 SOC loss above which the areas are to be considered as susceptible demanding immediate conservation measures. Pedometric mapping using SOC and soil loss can, thus, be a tool to prioritize areas in humid tropical climate for conservation agriculture.

Keywords

Conservation Agriculture, Pedometric Mapping, Soil Erosion, Soil Organic Carbon.

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