National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, Regional Centre, Jorhat, Assam, 785013.
Present addresses:1 National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, Shankar Nagar, Nagpur, Maharashtra, 440010.
Six pedons representing highly leached mineral soils of different orders under plantation, agriculture, forest and shifting cultivation (Jhum) of Manipur were studied for evaluating their characteristics, classification, problems and management appraisal. All the soils are strongly acidic, poor in base saturation and have low cation exchange capacity. Preponderance of low activity clays (LAC) make them poor in natural fertility. These soils are derived from old sedimentary parent material and are widely distributed occupying thousands of hectares in the hilly terrain of the state. Taxonomic classification, problems and management of the soils are discussed.
Highly leached soils, low activity clay, shifting cultivation, taxonomic soil classification