Traditional Knowledge for Sustainable Management of Soils - Principles of Sustainable Soil Management in Agroecosystems - page 306

Bharara and Mathur (1994) studied the indigenous systems of soil classification
in Rajasthan (Table 13.1). The local names reveal the soil capacity to produce good
crop, which are aligned with different classes and categories.
Dvorak (1988) described the traditional soil classification followed by farmers
in semiarid regions of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra ( Table 13.2 ). The terms
used by the farmers describe not only the color, texture, and depth of the soil but
also whether the soil is prone to drought or it can hold more water, and so forth. The
cropping systems in these regions have evolved over time based on these traditional
classifications.
In eastern India, there is a clear toposequence due to hilly terrain. In this region,
farmers described their land not only as upland, medium, and lowland but also in
terms of subcategories within each ecosystem, which govern the type of paddy to be
grown (direct seeded or transplanted) and the timing of the planting. Paddy is the
major crop grown on such lands in Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa, and Chattisgarh
( Table 13.3 ). Even today, most of the recommendations and the package of practices
evolved by agricultural scientists are made according to this traditional classification
being followed by farmers. It is interesting to note that this classification is based on
easily determinable characteristics.
In the northeast state of Arunachal Pradesh, Kuldip et al. (2011) found that the
traditional Nyishis tribes identify their soils by visual properties such as color, tex-
ture, and topographic positioning of land/terrain. The five classes of land/terrain
identified by them are given in Table 13.4 .

TABLE 13.1
Indigenous Soil Classification in Rajasthan (Northwestern India)

Average
Depth (cm) Quality of Land Class Local Name Color

Excellent Barani-I Badis Black 135

Unav

Very good Barani-II Kundala Less black 105

Jod
Jodio

Good Barani-III Dabla Yellow 75

Banwla

Fair Barani-IV Bedala White 45

Dhal
Tils

Source: Bharara, L.P., and Y.N. Mathur, People's perception and indigenous knowledge of land resource
conservation in Rajasthan. Proc. 8th Intl. Soil Cons. Conference on Soil and Water Conservation .
Eds. L.S. Bhushan, I.P. Abrol, and M.S. Rama Mohan Rao, 976-985, Indian Association of Soil
Water Conservationists, Dehradun, India, 1994.