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Soil Erosion in Punjab


Affiliations
1 ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Research Centre, Chandigarh 160 019, India
2 National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, Regional Centre, IARI Campus, New Delhi 110 012, India
3 National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, Amravati Road, Nagpur 440 033, India
4 Krishi Anusandhan Bhavan-I, Pusa, New Delhi 110 012, India
 

Soil erosion map of Punjab highlights the degree of soil erosion caused by water in the state. The values of soil loss per annum from each grid location were quantified using universal soil loss equation (USLE) and used in GIS for preparing the soil erosion map of Punjab state. About 87% of the total geographical area of Punjab has annual soil loss below 5 Mg ha-1 and does not require specific soil conservation measures. About 4.02% of the area is affected by annual soil loss of >15 Mg ha-1, which includes moderately severe (0.88%), severe (1.72%) and very severe (1.42%) soil loss @ 15 to 20, 20 to 40 and 40 to 80 Mg ha-1 respectively. This necessitates the development of improved technologies (conservation agricultural practices, contour bunding, contour cultivation, etc.), which need to be adopted for improving the productivity on a sustainable basis.

Keywords

Conservation Planning, Punjab, Soil Loss, Universal Soil Loss Equation.
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  • Soil Erosion in Punjab

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Authors

Sharmistha Pal
ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Research Centre, Chandigarh 160 019, India
G. S. Sidhu
National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, Regional Centre, IARI Campus, New Delhi 110 012, India
A. K. Tiwari
ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Research Centre, Chandigarh 160 019, India
Dipak Sarkar
National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, Amravati Road, Nagpur 440 033, India
V. N. Sharda
Krishi Anusandhan Bhavan-I, Pusa, New Delhi 110 012, India

Abstract


Soil erosion map of Punjab highlights the degree of soil erosion caused by water in the state. The values of soil loss per annum from each grid location were quantified using universal soil loss equation (USLE) and used in GIS for preparing the soil erosion map of Punjab state. About 87% of the total geographical area of Punjab has annual soil loss below 5 Mg ha-1 and does not require specific soil conservation measures. About 4.02% of the area is affected by annual soil loss of >15 Mg ha-1, which includes moderately severe (0.88%), severe (1.72%) and very severe (1.42%) soil loss @ 15 to 20, 20 to 40 and 40 to 80 Mg ha-1 respectively. This necessitates the development of improved technologies (conservation agricultural practices, contour bunding, contour cultivation, etc.), which need to be adopted for improving the productivity on a sustainable basis.

Keywords


Conservation Planning, Punjab, Soil Loss, Universal Soil Loss Equation.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv111%2Fi10%2F1687-1693