Soil and land quality indicators of the Indo-Gangetic plains of India.

Abstract

Sustaining soil and land quality under intensive land use and fast economic development is a major challenge for improving crop productivity in the developing world. Assessment of soil and land quality indicators is necessary to evaluate the degradation status and changing trends of different land use and management interventions. During the last four decades, the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) which covers an area of about 52.01 m ha has been the major food producing region of the country. However at present, the yield of crops in IGP has stagnated; one of the major reasons being deterioration of soil and land quality. The present article deals with the estimation of soil and land quality indicators of IGP, so that, proper soil and land management measures can be taken up to restore and improve the soil health. Use of principal component analysis is detailed to derive the minimum dataset or indicators for soil quality. The article also describes spatial distribution of soil and land quality with respect to major crops of IGP.