Soil Suitability for Crop Productivity

Successful crop management relies on selecting suitable crops to the type of soil present in that region. Most of crops prefer well drained medium textured soils with optimum physical properties and neutral pH. Alluvial soils prevails in river basins and deltas suits well for cultivation of rice, maize, groundnut, sugarcane, sunflower, cotton etc. Crops such as cotton, sorghum, millets, pulses, are predominantly grown in black soils which are having workability limitations. The Land Suitability Classification is a soil evaluation method, developed by FAO. FAO stated that Land suitability is the fitness of a given type of land for a defined use. The land may be considered in its present condition or after improvements. The process of land suitability classification is the appraisal and grouping of specific areas of land in terms of their suitability for defined uses. Land suitability Classes reflect degrees of suitability.