AGRO-ECOLOGICAL ZONES, THEIR SOIL RESOURCE AND CROPPING SYSTEMS Agro-Ecological Zones, their Soil Resource and Cropping Systems

India is gifted with heterogeneous landforms and variety of climatic conditions such as the lofty mountains, the raverine deltas, high altitude forests, peninsular plateaus, variety of geological formations endowed with temperature varying from arctic cold to equatorial hot, and rainfall from extreme aridity with a few cms (<10 cm) to perhumid with world’s maximum rainfall (1120 cm) of several hundred cms. This provides macro relief of high plateau, open valleys, rolling upland, plains, swampy low lands and barren deserts. This varying environmental situations in the country have resulted in a greater variety of soils. Therefore, the systematic appraisal of agro-ecological regions has tremendous scope in grouping relatively homogenous regions in terms of soil, climate and physiography and conducive moisture availability periods (length of growing season) in planning appropriate land use. Depending upon the soil, bioclimatic type and physiographic situations, the country has been grouped into 20 agro-eco regions (AER) and 60 agro-eco subregions (AESR). Each agroeco subregion has further been classified into agroeco unit at district level for developing long term land use strategies. The constraints and potentials with appropriate ameliorative measures have been described and suggested for each region for better understanding and adoption for formulating the plans to suggest crop/cropping system which will help in minimizing the deterioration of land quality controlled by soil physical conditions, nutrient availability and organic carbon pool.