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A Treatise of Indian and Tropical Soils pp 153–174Cite as

Importance of Pedology of Indian Tropical Soils in Their Edaphology

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Abstract

Many consider that the soils of the tropical soils are acidic, infertile, and that they do not support a reasonable sustained agricultural production. Recent research in agricultural production in tropical Asia and Latin America indicate that universal infertility of tropical soils is a myth. In India, during the green revolution period, a renaissance was initiated by the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in a modest way by managing the tropical soils properly for their restoration and preservation. It is clear now that the substrate quality of Indian tropical soils is good enough to support the agricultural land uses, horticultural, spices and cash crops, in making India self-sufficient in food production. The substrate quality is maintained by progressive pedogenic processes (pedology) in tropical Indian soils, which are inherently linked to many edaphological issues. Recent advances in pedology of the Indian tropical soils have demonstrated their considerable potential and also amply established the basic necessity of pedological research, in better understanding some queer edaphological aspects of Indian tropical soils (Vertisols, RF soils and IGP soils), which are affected by the climate change during the Holocene period. Thus edaphology is inherently based on deep fundamental understandings of soils and thus basic pedological research in tropical soils needs to be encouraged vigorously to link some of their major unresolved edaphological aspects to develop improved management practices as guiding principles to improve and maintain soil health through adequate national recommended practices in other tropical parts of the world.

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    D. K. Pal

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Pal, D.K. (2017). Importance of Pedology of Indian Tropical Soils in Their Edaphology. In: A Treatise of Indian and Tropical Soils. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49439-5_9

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