IAPRS & SIS, Vol.34, Part 7, “Resource and Environmental Monitoring", Hyderabad, India, 2002 
  
  
  
   
    
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
    
   
    
   
    
    
   
   
  
     
   
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
SI. | Soils series Soils Suitability sub class for various crops 
No. Paddy Chillies | Cotton Cashew | Coconut | Eucalyptus 
1 Yamleru SI S2n S2n S3nf S1 S1 
2 Uppu-1 S1 S2nf S2nf S3nf Sl S1 
3 Agam S3nfs Ninf Ninfs Ninf Nin S2n 
A Mattegunta S1 S2nf S3nf S3nf S1 S1 
5 Uppu-2 S3n Ninf Ninf Ninf S3nf S2n 
6 Gollapalem | N2 N2 N2 S3sf S3swf S3swf 
  
  
  
  
  
Table.3 Suitability subclass of soils for various crops 
On comparing the land characteristics with crop requirements 
the various land units of the study area were categorised into 
suitability order, classes and sub classes. The two orders S- 
Suitable and N-Not suitable reflect the kind of suitability and 
were further categorised according to degree of suitability into 
three classes S1-Suitable, S2-Moderately suitable and S3- 
Marginally suitable under order S and two classes NI- 
Presently not suitable, N2-Permanently not suitable under order 
N. 
The results (Table 3) of the study indicated that the soils of old 
tidal plains were suitable (S1) for paddy, coconut and 
eucalyptus plantations; moderately suitable (S2) for chillies, 
cotton and were marginally suitable (S3) for cashew plantation. 
The swale plains soils (Agam and Uppu-2 series) which, have 
salinity sodicity hazard were found marginally suitable (S3) for 
paddy cultivation, presently not suitable (N1) for cotton, 
chillies, cashew and coconut plantations; where as moderately 
suitable (S2) for eucalyptus plantation. The soils of Mettegunta 
were found suitable (S1) for paddy, coconut and eucalyptus 
cultivation and marginally suitable (S3) for chillies, cotton and 
cashew cultivation. The beach ridges, which are sandy in 
nature, were found permanently not suitable (N2) for paddy, 
chillies and cotton cultivation and were marginally suitable for 
cashew, coconut and eucalyptus plantation. These suitability 
classes were categorised into sub-classes based on the kind of 
limitation the land unit had like salinity/sodicity (n), soil 
fertility (f), physical soil limitation (s) and wetness (w). Further 
based on results of land evaluation of various crops and existing 
land use pattern information a land use plan was suggested for 
the study area indicating the most suitable agriculture, 
horticulture, agro-forestry crops for sustainable development 
(Table 4). 
  
SI. | Soils series Suggested land use 
  
  
  
  
  
  
No Agriculture Horticulture /Agro 
forestry 
1 Yamleru Paddy, Cashew 
chillies cotton 
2 Uppu-1 Paddy, Cashew 
chillies, 
cotton 
3 Agam Paddy Eucalyptus, coconut 
(STV*) prosopis, acacia 
4 Mattegunta | Paddy, Eucalyptus, coconut, 
chillies prosopis, acacia 
3 Uppu-2 Paddy (STV) | Eucalyptus, coconut, 
prosopis, acacia 
Eucalyptus, cashew, 
coconut, casurina and 
prosopis, mangrove 
(along the coast) 
  
6 Gollapalem | - 
  
  
  
  
  
  
*SAT-Salt Tolerant Variety 
Table 4 Suggested land use for the study area 
4. CONCLUSIONS 
The paper describes the utility of high-resolution satellite data 
such as merged data of IRS IC LISS III and PAN for mapping 
of coastal saline soils on 1:25,000 scale at series level by 
following stratified random sampling procedure and further use 
of this information for land evaluation. This remote sensing 
approach of land evaluation is quite rapid and efficient for 
characterising the soils-site conditions, as the frequency of field 
observations for characterising the soil-site conditions are 
guided largely by the variations in spectral, spatial and temporal 
characteristics of images. 
The soils of the study area varies in physical, chemical and 
morphological properties in relation to land form. Soils 
developed on old tidal plains are very deep, moderately well 
drained fine textured and are normal soils with sub soil salinity, 
where as the soils developed on swale plains though are very 
deep and moderately well drained are relatively coarse in 
texture and have salinity and sodicity hazard. The soils of beach 
ridges are mostly sandy in nature, excessively drained and 
support only crops like cashew, eucalyptus, casurina and 
coconut. Consequently, wide variability in suitability of various 
crops have been observed in these soils. This variability in 
suitability of crops at different locations is attributed to the 
changes in different soil-site properties (except climate, which, 
is comparable at all sites) and also due to specific crop 
requirements of each crop. 
The dominant soil-site characteristics that influenced the 
suitability of various crops in the study area were 
salinity/sodicity, fertility, physical soil limitation and wetness. 
Paddy crop suitability found to vary from suitable to marginally 
suitable, except in sandy soils, which were not suitable. Chillies 
and cotton crops were found to be moderately suitable in 
normal and slightly saline soils where as in all other soils these 
crops were found not suitable. Cashew, coconut and Eucalyptus 
suitability also varied as per the soil-site condition and were 
found marginally suitable for growing on sandy soils. 
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
The present study is a part of research conducted under the 
National Agricultural Technology Project (NATP-MM/III-2). 
Authors are grateful to Indian council of Agricultural Research, 
NATP, New Delhi for funding the Project. The general research 
and logistic support of the scientists of Indo-Dutch Network 
Project, Acharya N.G.Ranga Agricultural University, Bapatla, 
Andhra Pradesh during ground data collection for this study is 
also gratefully acknowledged. 
    
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