The soil erosion from croplands of the Kandhamala plateau region of Orissa was determined using the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). The erosivity factor (R) of USLE was found to be very high at 799. About 12627 thousand tonnes of topsoil was found to be lost from the cultivable areas at the rate of 94.23 t ha−1, every year. A major percentage (22.66%) of soil loss to the tune of 2861.12 thousand tonnes occurs from the uncovered fallow land alone at the rate of 191.25 t ha−1. Concentrated high rainfall in monsoon period with sufficient surface gradient and uncovered crop fields were observed to be the major causes of land degradation in the area.
Soil loss, degradation, erodobility, erosion index
