Characterization and Classification of Pigeon Pea Growing Soils and their Land Suitability for Hot Semiarid Deccan Plateau, India

Abstract

Background: Semiarid lands possess limitations of climate such as low and erratic rainfall, long dry spell, high potential evapotranspiration and lesser length of growing period which directly influence the yield and productivity of crop along with the soil properties. Pigeon pea, being one of the most dominant pulse crops cultivated in the semiarid Deccan plateau, an understanding on the soils where pigeon pea is mainly grown and the evaluation of their land suitability was found to be essential. Methods: Land resource inventory at 1:10,000 scale was carried out in Mahabubnagar Rural mandal, Mahabubnagar district, Telangana state of South Deccan plateau to characterize the major pigeon pea growing soils and their land suitability evaluation. Result: When the entire study area was evaluated for its suitability, majority of the area (32.79%) was marginally suitable, followed by moderately suitable area (16.24%) with moderate to severe limitations of nutrient availability, rooting conditions, gravelliness and texture and a very small area of 5.55 per cent was found to be highly suitable towards the crop. Out of the 18 soil series identified, only five were the major pigeon pea soils which were mostly marginally suitable (S3) with limitations of nutrient availability, slope, effective root depth and texture. Though the climatic characteristics of the area were highly favourable to the crop classified under the highly suitable class (S1), rooting conditions, nutrient availability and slope were the major limitations towards the cultivation and productivity of pigeon pea.