Assessment Of Suitability For Rainfed Maize Using Soil And Water Balance Parameters In Dungarpur District Of Rajasthan

摘要

Maize is the principal crop of Dungarpur district being grown during kharif season. It was cultivated in 70 thousand hectares land of the district in 2000-2001 giving a total production of 39 thousand tones but the productivity was only 0.56 t/ha against the national productivity of 1.80 t/ha. Therefore, present study has been under taken to evaluate suitability of land for maize cultivation in Dungarpur district by using soil resource informations coupled with water balance parameters. The study showed that 19.8% (76,256 ha), 52.4% (2,02,145), 27.8% (1,07,192 ha) of the area were highly, moderately, and non-suitable, respectively, for maize cultivation. Overall suitability index for maize crop was observed 53.8%. The spatial distribution of suitable areas suggest that maize with improved agronomic practices should be implemented to highly and moderately suitable areas and remaining areas should be diverted for other crops to increase overall maize productivity in the district.