A Proposed Land Use Capability Classification System for Indian Sub-Continent

The existing Land Use Capability Classification for India is almost the true copy of United States Department of Agriculture Land Use Capability Classification system with very few minor changes; and thus it is mainly based on the Agro-economic structure of USA. As a result, many fertile and productive lands of India, which are highly economic to cultivate, comes under the class “Not Suitable for Agriculture”, e.g. Tea Gardens of India and fertile cultivable lands on hill slopes. Further the factors considered in determination of Land Capability Class, have not been assigned specific weightage and contribution, and this might lead to subjectivity in determination of land class. Moreover the Indian Land Use Capability Classification divides the cultivable lands into two groups, suitable for cultivation and not suitable for cultivation, which is not justified under the existing cultivation conditions in India.

The proposed Land Use Capability Classification system eliminates the dividing line between the land suitable and not suitable for cultivation; and recommends all lands which are economical to cultivate as Suitable for cultivation. In the proposed pattern of land classification, many factors have been considered and all these factors have been given a weighatge on marks basis and this helps in clear and distinct contribution of these factors in land class determination. In the proposed Land Use Capability Classification system, the class of land only denotes the relative productivity of land and not its suitability and unsuitability for cultivation.