Soil water retention characteristics under various modified land use systems of Meghalaya, have been determined from commonly and easily measured soil properties such as soil texture, bulk density and organic carbon content based on multivariate linear pedo-transfer functions (PTFs). The predicted soil water contents at field capacity (FC) and permanent wilting point (PWP) from regression model were in good agreement with those obtained by laboratory analysis. Few other selected PTFs were also evaluated on large independent soil datasets under present study. Tomasella and Hoddnett (1998) model was found to be satisfactory for prediction of soil moisture characteristics under present condition. Results from the present study revealed that PTFs based on soil texture, bulk density and organic carbon content perform better for soil moisture prediction under hilly agro-ecosystems of North-eastern India.
Pedo-transfer functions, soil water retention, land use systems, hill agriculture
