A History of Agriculture in India v1.c8.s2.t3: Red Soils
A History of Agriculture in India v1.c8.s2.t3
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Red Soils
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Red soils extend practically over the whole Archaean basement of Peninsular India, from Bundelkhand to the extreme south, covering 2,072,000 square kilometres, embracing south Bengal, Orissa, parts of Madhya Pradesh, eastern Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and a major part of Tamil Nadu. These soils also occur in Santhal Parganas in Bihar, and in the Mirzapur, Jhansi and Hamirpur districts of Uttar Pradesh. They were produced as a result of meteoric weathering of ancient crystalline and metamorphic rocks. These soils started developing around the Mesozoic and Tertiary ages.
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The colour of these soils is generally red, grading sometimes into brown, chocolate, yellow, grey and even black. The redness is due more to a general diffusion than to a high proportion of iron content.
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The soils grade from the poor, thin, gravelly and light-coloured varieties of the uplands to the much more fertile, deep, dark varieties of the plains and the valleys. They are generally poor in nitrogen, phosphorus and humus. Compared with regur, they are poor in lime, potash and iron oxide, and are also uniformly low in phosphorus. The clay fraction of the soils is rich in kaolinite.
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Red soils can be divided into two broad subgroups: (i) red loams of argillaceous character with a cloddy structure and possessing a few concretions, and (ii) red earths with loose and friable top soil, rich in secondary concretions and sesquioxide type of clay.
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More than two-thirds of the cultivated area in Tamil Nadu is covered by red soils. They are in-situ formations, produced from the rock below under the influence of climatic conditions. The rocks are acidic, consisting of mica or red granites. The soils are shallow and open in texture. They have a low exchange capacity and are deficient in organic matter and plant nutrients.
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The predominant type in the eastern tract of Karnataka is the red soil overlying granite. It is rich in potash, iron and alumina.
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The acidic soils in the south of Bihar are red soils. In West Bengal, the red soils, sometimes misrepresented as laterites, are the transported soils from the hills of the Chhota Nagpur plateau. A part of the Jhansi District in Uttar Pradesh also has red soils. A broad strip of area running between eastern and western parts of Coorg is red loam, easily drained, and having fairly dense vegetation.