LAND USE CAPABILITY CLASSIFICATION FOR INDIAN SUB-CONTINENT

This book is an eye opening approach in the field of Sustainable Agriculture. This book is useful for diploma students of Agriculture, the student of B.Sc.(Ag), B. Tech. Agricultural Engineering, for the Post Graduate student of disciplines related to Land and Water Management Engineering eg. Soil and Water Conservation Engineering, Irrigation & Drainage Engineering, Hydrology etc. For the Ph.D. student and researchers, the book has the capability to open the new avenues of research. Considering the need for broad group of student, the book has been written in very simple language. The Land Use Capability Classification is the base of all the Agricultural Technologies developed for sustainability of Agriculture, because each and every technology developed or recommended are need based. The need of any recommendation arises only when the problem has been identified. Thus the Land Use Capability Classification System helps us to identify the appropriate technology for the region in question, to bring it in its full potential. The existing land use capability classification system recommended for India is almost a true copy of USDA LUCC system with few minor changes, which has been discarded now because it does not suit to the Indian conditions. The sixty-four soils of India, considered as benchmark soils of India by national bureau of soil survey and land use planning (ICAR) and the Land Use Class allotted to these, are absolutely true but the methodology is not clear at all. In the present LUCC in India several factors are considered to classify a land and recommending a particular class for it but in the absence of any precise and accurate method of specific evaluation of soil and land characters, there is always an ambiguity, overlapping and confusion in classifying lands, which falls in two adjoining classes.Due to the unsuitability for Indian conditions of present LUCC system, uncertainty about the impact of factors affecting and their proper role in allocation of Land Class and lack of clear cut demarcation between adjoining classes, made the existing LUCC a very complex term and cumbersome process to its adoptability in Agriculture.

Considering the above facts this book has been developed for a systematic, precise and accurate evaluation of various soils and land characters to evaluate it for a land class. The book discusses a method of LUCC in which the confusions are removed and land classification has been made in a clear cut way without any ambiguity or confusion by adopting the award of numerical weight age method.

I hope this book will be very much useful for the diploma, under graduate, post graduate doctorate students, Scientists and also for the policy makers, involved with the development of Agriculture.