Available Water of Different Textural Classes in the Ayacuts of Hirakud Command Area (Orissa)

The study pertains to available water holding capacity of the 13 soil textural classes, ranging from sand to clay, occurring in the left and right ayacuts of Hirakud Command Area, Orissa. Texture, organic matter (OC) and bulk density (BD) were found to influence the water holding capacity, predictable from the equation, Y = 8.598+0.129 (silt+clay)+3.241(OC-4.678 (BD) with R²=0.93. Available water holding capacity though, in general, was significantly correlated with silt plus clay fraction, within the textural groups it was still more closely related to silt plus clay in coarse and moderately coarse textured soils, to silt in medium textured, and to the proportion of silt to clay in fine textured ones. Water retention was largely influenced by the nature of dominant clay mineral.