The soils of old tidal plains are normal soils with saline subsoil 
supporting optimum growth of crops. These soils have been 
grouped into two series. Yemleru series belong to Fine loamy 
mixed hyperthermic family of Typic Haplustepts and Uppu-1 
series belong to Fine mixed hyperthermic family of Typic 
Haplustepts. These soils are very deep, dark brown, moderately 
well drained with texture of silty clay loam to sandy clay 
developed on nearly level old tidal plain. The various soil-site 
characteristics and weighted mean of various land qualities pH, 
EC etc are given in Table 2. According to it soil reaction of 
these soils varies from 8.1 to 8.2, ECe 3.6 to 3.75 dSm™ and 
exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) 5.1 to 11.5. The 
Yemleru series is quite extensive in occurrence and supports 
good growth of crops like cotton and pulses compared to Uppu- 
1 series. 
The soils of swale plains are saline and saline-sodic in nature. 
Mainly paddy crop is cultivated on these soils and crop 
productivity is affected slightly to moderately. These soils have 
been grouped into three series. Agam series belong to Coarse 
loamy mixed hyperthermic family of Typic Ustorthents where 
as Mattegunta and Uppu-2 series belong to Fine loamy mixed 
hyperthermic family of Typic Haplustepts. The Agam series 
soils are very deep, dark brown sandy loam in texture and are 
moderately saline in nature with pH 8.2, ECe 21.2 dSm™ and 
ESP 11.2. The Mattegunta series soils are very deep brown to 
IAPRS & SIS, Vol.34, Part 7, “Resource and Environmental Monitoring”, Hyderabad, India, 2002 
dark brown, clay loam in texture and are slightly saline sodic in 
nature with pH 8.4, ECe 6.2 dSm™ and ESP 13.0. The uppu-2 
series soils are very deep, very dark grayish brown to brown 
sandy clay loam in texture and are moderately saline sodic in 
nature with pH 8.2, ECe 17.5 dSm"! and ESP 18.6. 
The soils of the beach ridges are sandy in nature and grouped 
under Gollapalem series belonging to Typic Ustipsamments. 
These soils have been further categorised based on land use / 
land cover into plantations (under coconut, cashew), dense 
scrub (under casurina, prosopis), barren,and fallow land. 
3.3 Land evaluation: 
The soils of the study area were evaluated for their suitability 
for various crops viz., paddy, chillies, cotton, cashew, coconut 
and eucalyptus by using FAO (1976) land suitability 
‘classification system. The various climatic and soil-site 
characteristics of the mapped soils of the study area (Table 2) 
were matched with the standard climatic and soil-site suitability 
requirement criteria for each crop expressed in terms of degrees 
of limitation. For paddy, cotton and eucalyptus the requirement 
criteria given by Sehgal (1996) and for crops like cashew, 
chillies and coconut the criteria given by Sys et.al., (1993) with 
necessary modifications was used and soil-site suitabilty map 
for various crops was prepared (Figure 1). 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Characteristics Soil series 
Climatic Yamleru Uppu-1 Agam Mattegunta Uppu-2 Gollapalem 
Annual Rainfall 1080 1080 1080 1080 1080 1080 
(mm) 
Mean temp (°C) 20.3 20.3 20.3 29.3 29,3 29.3 
Mean max.temp 31.6 31.6 31.6 31.6 31.6 31.6 
(©) 
Mean min.temp 25.7 257 25.7 25.7 25.7 28.7 
CC) 
Site 
Slope (96) 0-1 1-3 0-1 0-1 0-1 1-3 
Erosion Slight Slight Slight Slight Slight Slight 
Drainage Mod.well Mod.well well Mod.well : Mod.well Excess 
Flooding No No No No No Occasional 
Soil 
Texture Silty clay Sandy clay Sandy loam Clay loam Sandy clay loam Sand 
loam 
Depth (cm) 110 90 133 120 108 130 
*CaCO; % 3.5 2.8 2.1 EN 2.1 
*CEC cmol/kg 26 30.2 14 34 32 2 
*Base saturation 96 91 95 97 96 74 
9b 
Org Carbon 46 0.78 0,21 0.32 0.57 0.59 0.5 
(0-20cm) 
*ECe dS/m 3.75 3.6 21.2 6.2 17.5 0.16 
*ESP 13.0 5.1 11.2 13.0 18.6 8 
*pH 8.4 8.2 8.2 8.4 8.2 7.4 
  
  
  
  
  
* Weighted mean values. 
Table 2 Climatic and soil-site characteristics of soils 
    
DD 
Prese 
Cocc