Land evaluation studies in semi-arid central alluvial plains area in district Rohtak, Haryana

Scientific evaluation of the land is essential in order to understand the suitability for agricultural and non-agricultural purposes and identification of capabilities and constraints of the land for various crops and their cultivation helps in appropriate and sustainable usage. In order to uplift the production, productivity as well as profitability from a farm land, the knowledge regarding various land resources and soil properties become pre-requisites. In this, direction, a land inventorization was carried out using RS and GIS techniques. The prime objective was to carry out land evaluation studies based on land based on land capability classification and suitability of lands for commonly cultivated crops in the region. Soil morphological features, physical, physico-chemical and fertility properties of the land were analysed and the results indicated that the soils are good in inherent properties even with the slight variation in the morphological and physicochemical properties. Land evaluation based on Land Capability Classification (LCC) revealed that, all the blocks fall under Class-IV with some of the limitations like, erosion, texture and low organic carbon content in soils. Suitability of land to the crops indicated that there are limitations with respect to erosion, slope and soil fertility. Based on the obtained results, corrective measures were suggested for all the blocks to reduce the erosion losses improve the soil properties for higher productivity of the cultivated crops. The study concludes that variation in soils in all blocks is due to the close relationship between soils, physiography and climate which are interrelated.

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Dynamic land capability model: a case history

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.1990.0183 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 329 (1255) ◽

pp. 411-419 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Keyword(s):

Soil Moisture ◽

Crop Yields ◽

Evaluation Studies ◽

Soil Improvement ◽

Crop Productivity ◽

Farm Management ◽

Land Evaluation ◽

Soil Types ◽

Land Capability ◽

Management Aspect

A computer simulation approach has been developed that quantifies land capability in terms of crop productivity under different conditions of climate, soil, drainage or irrigation and farm management. This model deals with: (i) the dates and number of days in spring when soil moisture content falls sufficiently to permit soil cultivation and sowing or planting (farm management aspect); (ii) duration of germination and time of emergence in relation to soil moisture and temperature; (iii), water uptake, development, growth and harvest of the crop; (iv) number and time of soil workable days available for the harvest of root crops in autumn (farm management aspect). The model was applied to compute effects of land drainage (15 combinations of drain depth and distance) on the yield of potatoes and spring cereals growing during 30 years (1952-81) on eight different soil types in the Netherlands. The outcome of this study was used as a basis for a nationwide system for evaluating the effects of soil and drainage upon crop yields. The methodology of the integrated model approach can be applied in other climates for a variety of crops growing on different soil types. It can be used to evaluate not only drainage effects on yield, but also those of irrigation and soil improvement. The approach is applicable to land evaluation studies in general.

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Crop Water Requirements and Suitability Assessment in Arid Environments: A New Approach

Agronomy ◽

10.3390/agronomy11020260 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 260

Author(s):

Abdelrazek Elnashar ◽

Mohamed Abbas ◽

Hassan Sobhy ◽

Mohamed Shahba

Keyword(s):

Evaluation System ◽

Land Evaluation ◽

Weather Data ◽

Arid Environments ◽

Crop Water ◽

Water Requirements ◽

New Approach ◽

Crop Water Requirements ◽

Semi Arid ◽

Selection Of

Efficient land and water management require the accurate selection of suitable crops that are compatible with soil and crop water requirements (CWR) in a given area. In this study, twenty soil profiles are collected to represent the soils of the study area. Physical and chemical properties of soil, in addition to irrigation water quality, provided data are utilized by the Agriculture Land Evaluation System for Arid and semi-arid regions (ALES-Arid) to determine crop suitability. University of Idaho Ref-ET software is used to calculate CWR from weather data while the Surface Energy Balance Algorithms for Land Model (SEBAL) is utilized to estimate CWR from remote sensing data. The obtained results show that seasonal weather-based CWR of the most suitable field crops (S1 and S2 classes) ranges from 804 to 1625 mm for wheat and berssem, respectively, and ranges from 778 to 993 mm in the vegetable crops potato and watermelon, respectively, under surface irrigation. Mean daily satellite-based CWR are predicted based on SEBAL ranges between 4.79 and 3.62 mm in Toshka and Abu Simbel areas respectively. This study provides a new approach for coupling ALES-Arid, Ref-ET and SEBAL models to facilitate the selection of suitable crops and offers an excellent source for predicting CWR in arid environments. The findings of this research will help in managing the future marginal land reclamation projects in arid and semi-arid areas of the world.

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