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SOIL - An
Introduction
- Soil is the natural and a vital resource
for growing food, fibre and firewood to meet the human needs.
- The soils are highly vulnerable to
degradation and nature takes very long period (say 300 – 1000 years) to
form an inch of the top soil mainly due to the combined effects of
climate, vegetation, organisms, relief and time on the rocks and parent
material.
- Soil is a life supporting system upon
which human beings have been dependent from the dawn of the
civilization.
- The soil performs many functions such as
media for biomass production, filtering and buffering, a habitat and
gene reservoir, a source of raw materials, a substrate for buildings,
roads and other structures and as an archaeological artifact.
- Impairment in any function of soils
reduces their quality, value and capacity to provide the basic
necessities to support ecosystems. Hence, comprehensive information on
soil resources in terms of types of soils, their spatial distribution,
extent, their limitations viz., erosion, salinization /
alkalization, water logging etc., and their potential / capabilities, is
required for a variety of purposes such as command area development,
soil conservation in catchment areas, rainfed farming, watershed
management and reclamation of degraded lands. Such information also
plays an important role in
non-agricultural sectors like,
construction of roadways, railways, dams and engineering structures,
etc.
- Management of soil resources is essential
for continued agricultural productivity and protection of the
environment.
![](file:///F|/agri_soil_intro_files/agri_soil_intro_clip_image006.jpg)
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