Assessment and Management of Soil Sustainability of Calcareous Soils in Different Landforms in a Transect over Basaltic Trap

An attempt is being made to assess the sustainability of calcareous soils in a transect over different basaltic trap landforms of southern Saurashtra of Gujarat. Comparing different indicators of soil sustainability with criteria and scoring, it is inferred that cumulative rating index (weighting factors) varied from 24.0 to 29.3 in the soils over different landforms. The soil sustainability of different landforms is in order of hill slope > piedmont plain > lower piedmont > upper piedmont > coastal plain. In general, the soils of southern Saurashtra are sustainable with high input class S₃ (weight factors 27.1) on account of major limitations like poor soil fertility (low O.C.), high pH as well as bulk density, low saturated hydraulic conductivity as well as soil depth and fine texture. The soil management strategies in different landforms are also discussed in the text.