Land Utilization Surveys of Saline Soils of the Bombay State

Abstract

There are large areas of alkali soils known by general term as Salines along with the cultivable areas in the Bombay State. These lands are highly alkaline and contain excess of salts and diffcult to cultivate with normal practices without adopting previous ameliorative mea- sures to improve the lands. Utilization of such alkali lands in the proper way and bringing them under cultivation is a great problem and urgent necessity for the increas- ed crop production. Basu ( 1950) while dealing with the problems of saline soils in the Bombay State has indicated that general- ly there are three types of saline soils which are normally found to occur, viz. (i) natural salines, (ii) salines formed as a result of irrigation and (iii) sea-affected or tidal lands known locally as khar or khajan. It has been observed that these alkali soils vary in their degree of sodium saturation, total salts and alkalinity and also in the nature of soil horizons which constitute the soil profile. Further, information on the detailed morpho- logical examination of the soils in the field is essential without which no scientific classi- fication of soils is possible nor is it possible to suggest remedial measures for their proper utilization. With this end in view, soil surveys based on modern genetic method (BASU and SIRUR, 1938) have been carried out in the soils of the Bombay Deccan.