Characterization and Classification of Soils of Bharuch Taluka in Bharuch District of Gujarat

Abstract

A detailed soil survey was undertaken at 1:10000 scale to describe, characterize, classify and evaluate the soils of Bharuch taluka, Bharuch district, Gujarat. Old and recent basaltic alluvial plains are the major landforms of the area. A total of 74 pedons, representing old (41 pedons) and recent (33 pedons) alluvial plains were studied. The soils were correlated and three soil series viz. Umraj, Derol and Singdot were identified. The Umraj belong to a very fine, smectitic Typic Haplusterts covers 30,839 ha (48.5 %) area, whereas Derol and Singdot a fine, smectitic Vertic Haplustepts and fine, mixed, Typic Haplustepts covers 20,604 ha (32.5 %) and 4,164 ha (6.6 %) area, respectively. The sand, silt and clay in the soils varied from 8 to 31, 24 to 49 and 23 to 67 per cent, respectively. The soils were very deep, neutral to slightly alkaline (pH 7.3 to 8.4) with low to medium in organic carbon content (0.14 to 0.58 %), low to high in calcium carbonate (1.9 to 16.5 %) with medium to high CEC [39.4 to 62.0 cmol (p+) kg-1] and high base saturation (67.4 to 92.0 %). Soils were assessed as highly to moderately suitable for major crops (cotton, pigeonpea, maize, sugarcane, wheat and chickpea).