Land and Soil for Agricultural Development in Bangladesh

Land and Soil Resources Database for Grass‐Root Agricultural Development in Bangladesh

S.M. Imamul Huq1 and A.F.M. Manzurul Hoque2

1Professor, Department of Soil, Water and Environment, University of Dhaka, Dhaka ‐1000,Bangladesh.2Senior Scientific Officer, Soil Resource Development Institute, Dhaka‐1215, Bangladesh.

Location of BangladeshBangladesh lies between 20034/

and 26038/ north latitude and 88001/ and 92041/ east longitudes.

Located as an interface of two different environments - the Bay of Bengal in the south and the Himalayas in the north.

Sits astride the tropic of cancer.

Bordered by India in the west, north and east except for a small portion in the south-east by Myanmar. The entire south of the country is occupied by the Bay of Bengal.

PhysiographyThe three broad physiographic units belonging to three distinct geological ages: A. Tertiary hills occupying 12%

area B. Pleistocene terraces covering

8% area and C. Recent floodplains spreading

about 80% area of the country.

These three physiographic units are again categorized into 20 different physiography considering their geomorphology and origin of soils.

Climate and Agriculture

Humid tropical monsoon type with three distinct meteorological seasons – summer, monsoon and winter.

The rainfall ranges from 1500 mm in the northwest to 5000 mm in the northeast.

The rainfall along with depth and duration of flooding is the main critical factor for agriculture in Bangladesh.

The critical aspects of rainfall in relation to the use of land for agriculture is related to the uncertainty of the onset and departure of the monsoon as well as occurrence of droughts.

Based on the climate, physiography and soil, Bangladesh has been divided into 30 Agro Ecological Zones (AEZ)

Soils of BangladeshData on land and soils of Bangladesh was almost nonexistent before mid sixties.The first account of the landscape and soils in Bangladesh was published in 1956 where the country was divided into seven soil tracts based on the geological origin of soils without considering the soil forming factors.

No. Soil Tracts Area Sq. Km. (estimated)

Typical Soil Series**

1 Madhupur Tract 10,000 Tejgaon

2 Barind Tract 13,000 Amnura

3 Tista Silt 16,000 Gangachara

4 Brahmaputra Alluvium 40,000 Ghatail

5 Gangetic Alluvium 27,000 Sara

6 Coastal Saline Tract 20,000 Barisal

7 Chittagong Hill Tract 15,000 Kaptai

Table 1. The Seven Soil Tracts of Bangladesh*

*Islam and Islam (1956), **SRDI (1965-1976)

Soils of Bangladesh (Contd.)Rainfall is high in the north-east and gradually declines towards the west.

Considering the climate as the most active pedogenic factor, Bangladesh was divided into three zones:

A. HumidB. Semi-Humid

and C. Feebly Arid.

A pedoclimatic zone was defined as representing an aea where the climatic factor working on parent material has produced similar soils.

.

Soils of Bangladesh (Contd.)Zone No. Name of Pedoclimatic Zone Areas and Associated Soil TypesZone 1 Humid The north-east and east

submountainean hill tracts, south and south-east coastal lands. The probable soil association in the zone is a podzolic type including alluvial.

Zone 2 Semi-Humid The north-notheast flat and the south-wet lowland. The probable soil association being of degraded lateritic and alluvial.

Zone 3 Feebly Arid The rest of Bangladesh. The probable soil association being of a lateritic and also of a pedocalic type including alluvial.

Reconnaissance Soil Survey (RSS)The information on land and soils of Bangladesh published during 1956-1957were of no significance in practical use since these were produced without much field investigation.

Systematic generation of primary data regarding land and soil resources started during the early sixties by undertaking the Reconnaissance Soil Survey (RSS) program under the Soil Survey Project of the then East Pakistan with the active cooperation of FAO.

The RSS was based on intensive aerial photo interpretation followed by field examination of soils made along planned traverses across the landscapes.

A total of 465 soil series (taxonomic unit) were identified, described and classified particularly for the agro-service purpose through the RSS during 1965-1976.

Reconnaissance Soil Survey (RSS)

Soil series were identified on the basis of differentiating characteristics such as texture, nature of the horizon developed, soil reaction, consistence etc.

The physical and chemical properties of 465 soil series were determined in the laboratory and all the analytical results were subsequently published in the 33 RSS reports.

Soils were mapped at the scale of 1:125000 in terms of geographical associations or complexes of soil series and phases. A total of 1034 soil associations (groups of soils that occur together within part or all of a physiographic unit or subunit) were mapped.

The smallest soil series has an area of only 11 ha while the largest one has an area of 486,493 ha. The average area of a soil series is 23,989 ha.

Total covered area in the RSS was 11,466,913 ha. Forest occupying 15% of the land in Bangladesh has not been covered by RSS.

Contribution of RSSRSS in Bangladesh successfully filled the vacuum that existed for a long time. Through RSS people could get first hand information about the soils of Bangladesh.. Through their characterization in soil taxonomy , everybody could have some knowledge on the nature of Bangladesh soils.

Some basic soil properties; morphological, physical and chemical properties of soils were made available.

The information contained in the RSS reports, a comprehensive classification of Bangladesh soils was carried out by Brammer in 1971. Through this descriptive classification, the classification of the sols in Bangladesh was made understandable to the layman.

The information contained in the RSS reports were utilized in making the AEZ map of Bangladesh (FAO-UNDP, 1988).

Soils (taxonomic units) were classified according to two international soil classification system, -the US soil taxonomy and the FAO-UNESCO legend based on RSS data.

RSS based information has been used as the baseline data to conduct the semi-detailed soil survey of the country during 1986-2001 for publishing the ‘Land and Soil Resource Utilization Guide’ for upazilas (sub-districts) of the county.

General Soil Map of Bangladesh

Brammer in 1971 classified the soils of

Bangladesh into 20 general types based on

RSS data.

FAO-UNDP developed a “General Soil

Map’ on the basis of Brammer’s

classification at the time of making a ‘Land

Resource Appraisal for Agricultural Development of Bangladesh in 1988

Later in 1997 SRDI developed another General

Soil Map of the country on the basis of RSS data and

further field verification

General Soil Map of BangladeshNo. General Soil Type Area (ha)

1 Non -calcareous Alluvium 303180

2 Calcareous Alluvium 934513

3 Acid Sulphate Soils 458287

4 Peat 183743

5 (a-f) Grey Floodplain Soils 1417917

6 (a-b) Grey Floodplain Soils & Non-calcareous Brown Floodplain Soils

352713

7 Mixed Grey, Dark Grey & Brown Floodplain Soils

37641

8 Grey Floodplain & Non-calcareous Dark Grey Floodplain Soils

489668

9a Surma-Kushiyara Floodplain Soils 302466

9b Comilla Basin Soils 16791

10 Grey Piedmont Soils 345523

11 Acid Basin Clay 471400

12 Non Calcareous Dark Grey Floodplain Soils 559470

General Soil Map of BangladeshNo. General Soil Type Area (ha)

13 Calcareous Dark Grey Floodplain Soils & Calcareous Brown Floodplain Soils

1377233

14 Calcareous Dark Grey Floodplain Soil s with Lime Kankar

64612

15 (a-b)

Non-calcareous Brown Floodplain Soils & Grey Floodplain Soils

250548

16 Balck Terai Soils 59652

17a Mainly Deep, Brown Soils on Low Hills, Mainly Steep Sloping

556659

17b Deep & Shallow Brown Soils on Very Steep, High Hills

599017

18a Madhupur Tract Soils 263607

18b Baind Tract Soils 52126

18c Akhaura Terrace Soils 10257

19a Mainly Level Terrace Soils 389037

19b Closely Dissected Terrace Soils 45734

19c Old Piedmont-plain Soils 45898

Agro Ecological Zones

AEZ No AEZ Name Area(ha)

1 Old Himalayan Piedmont Plain 278361

2 Active Tista Floodplain 64488

3 Tista Meander Floodplain 657525

4 Karatoya Bangali Floodplain 172647

5 Lower Atrai Basin 57806

6Lower PunabhabhavaFloodplain 10030

7Active Brahmaputra-JamunaFloodplain 233910

8Young Brahmaputra & JamunaFloodplain 401258

Based on the RSS data on land types and soils, physiography and climate, Bangladesh has been divided into 30 AEZ (FAO-UNDP, 1988)

Table - 4: Area (ha) Covered by Different AEZ



11 High Ganges River Floodplain 896031

12 Low Ganges River Floodplain 543891

13 Ganges Tidal Floodplain 1054927

14 Gopalganj Khulna Bils 154530

15 Arial Bil 9270

16 Middle Meghna River Floodplain 116705

17 Lower Meghna River Floodplain 60336

18 Young Meghna Estuarine Floodplain 367913

19 Old Meghna Estuarine Floodplain 531051

20 Eastern Surma-Kushiyara Floodplain 328324

21 Sylhet Basin 319033

22 Northern & Eastern Piedmont Floodplain 298483




23 Chittagong Coastal Plain 233009

24 St. Martin’s Coral Island 207

25 Level Barind Tract 347077

26 High Barind Tract 107834

27 North Eastern Barind Tract 78602

28 Madhupur Tract 287831

29 Northern & Eastern Hills 1245806

30 Akhaura Terrace 5022

9598381

Sundarban 427418

Reserve Forest 284210

Others 4446991

Total 14757000


Soil Classification (US Soil Taxonomy & FAO-Unesco Legend)

Soil series identified through RSS, according to US soil taxonomy comfortably fit into five orders, such as: Inceptisols, Entisols, Ultisols, Histosolsand Mollisols. There were 12 suborders, 21 great groups and 56 subgroups in this country (Hussain, 1992).

According to FAO-UNESCO legend of soil classification system, the soil series identified through RSS has been categorized mainly into 35 FAO-Unesco soil units. These occur mainly as Fluvisols, Gleysols, Leptosol, Arenosol, Cambisol, Luvisol, Planosol, Alisol, Histosol and Anthrosol.

Soils of Bangladesh have never been classified at the ‘Family Level’

Semi Detailed Soil SurveyAlthough RSS was conducted to generate land and soil data for agro service purpose, but the use of these data were limited only to planners and researchers. RSS data could not be widely used at the farmers’ level.

Considering this issue, Soil Resource Development Institute (SRDI) undertook the program of semi-detailed soil survey particularly to publish the ‘Land and Soil Resources Utilization Guide’ for different upazilas (sub-districts) of the country in 1985.

Through the semi-detailed soil survey a huge data/information on land and soil resources of the individual upazilla of the country were collected, soils were mapped at the scale of 1:50000 and grouped in terms of their similarities in physico-chemical properties, physiographic and AEZ based distribution.

About 50,000 topsoil samples collected for 324 soil groups during the semi-detailed soil survey were analyzed in the laboratory to determine their physico-chemical properties.

All these data thus generated concerning land quality and soil characteristics have been converted to digital format using GIS (Geographic Information System) technology.

•

Semi Detailed Soil Survey

Legend

Utilization of Semi Detailed Soil Survey Data

The “Land and Soil Resources Utilization Guide’ – is popularly known as UpazilaNirdeshika

This guide has been used for land use planning, crop specific fertilizer recommendation and post disaster agricultural management.

Subsequently a customized software named SOLARIS (SOil and LAnd Resources Information System) and a web based software known as OFRS (Online Fertilizer Recommendation System) has been developed to provide different type of service to the beneficiaries including crop suitability assessment and crop-specific fertilizer recommendation for grass root level agricultural development.

The utilities of SOLARIS and OFRS will presented through the following slides

CONTENTS OF SOLARISCONTENTS OF SOLARIS

• All information, data and tables included in Upazila Nirdeshika:– Mapping Unit, physiography, landform, land type, Soil group,

Water recession during dry season, limitation of mapping unit, Any hazard (Flood, drought, salinity, erosion etc.), analytical data, soil sampling points, Crop suitability, fertilizer recommendation etc.

– 5500 mapping unit, 1.7 m polygon, 54 unique fields in addition to 50,000 point data on soil nutrient (14 elements: NPK…..pH, OM….etc)

• Software developed using Visual Basic as front‐end and MS Access in back‐end.

• Mapping tools is designed using ArcGIS 9.1

Mapping Unit vs Polygon

SOLARIS SOLARIS –– Startup WindowStartup Window

Solaris-DI

Solaris-GIS

Land Information

Administrative Information AEZ Info

Analysis Tool

Cropping PatternMap unit Info

Climate Info

Crop Information

Soil Information

Menu System

Toolbar

SOLARIS SOLARIS –– Menu SystemMenu System

SOLARIS SOLARIS -- DIDI

SOLARIS Data Interpreter

September 9, 2007

Upazila Map

SOLARISSOLARIS-- Analysis ToolAnalysis Tool

Analysis is integrated with the SOLARIS Data Interpreter

User can analyze and give feed back to the GIS unit for updating

User can view, print reports and charts

SOLARIS SOLARIS -- GISGIS

Classified Analysis: Mapping unit based

Soil Texture – Top soil, Sub soil, Substratum

Soil Group, Land type classification, Landform,

Surface Water Recession characteristics, Drainage, Available

moisture, Slope classification


Land Type MapBangladesh

Legend

Soil TextureTop soil – Comilla District

Legend

Muradnagar Upazila

Soil TextureTop soil – Muradnagar Upazila

Purba Jatrapur Union

Soil TextureTop soil – Purba Jatrapur Union

Legend

Non-Irrigated Condition

Clay Loam - ML

Loam

Clay - MH


Soil TextureWith Irrigation – SuitableWithout Irrigation – Moderately Suitable

Irrigated Condition

Predominantly 80 - 100Dominantly 60 – 80Mainly 40 - 60Some 0 - 40

Legend

T. Aman Crop SuitabilityT. Aman Crop SuitabilityComilla DistrictComilla District

Boro Crop Suitability

Legend

Comilla District


Clay Loam - ML

Clay - HL

JassoreLand type within a mapping unit are summarized by LT class

Legend


Landtype within Map unit

H Non FloodedMH Upto 90 cmML 90- 180 cmL 180 –275 cmVL > 275 cm

Landtype Classification

Surface Water Recession Mapping unit based water recession characteristics

Legend


Maximum percentage

Jassore

Drainage

Mapping unit based drainage characteristics

Legend


Drainage properties

Jassore district

Jassore district

Moisture available for each soil units within a Upazila (High to Low)

Legend


Available Moisture

Moisture Holding Capacity

September 9, 2007

Irrigation Water Management

Soil Map

Jamun- Chilmari- MandaLoam- Silty Loam

Jamun- AmgaonLoam- Clayey Loam

Jamun- Amgaon- UlipurLoam- Clayey Loam - Clay

Drought Map

Net Irrigation RequirementT. Aman

Crop Suitability

Nine soil and land parameters are considered for suitability analysisLandtype, Relief, Water recession, Drainage, Texture, Consistency,

Moisture, Soil Reaction, Salinity

Suitable, Moderately Suitable, Non-suitable crop

Land Zoning, Nutrient Status, Hazard mapping, Nutrient/ Fertilizer recommendation


Crop Suitability

Boro Crop Suitability

Legend


Loam

Clay Loam

Clay

Jessore District

Nutrient Status/ Recommendation:

Analyze chemical properties of top soil by Soil Group

Classification of Nutrient for Upland and Wetland crops are considered by Soil Texture (13 Nutrients)

Nutrient recommendation is done by considering Crop type, Yield range, Nutrient class and type

Fertilizer Recommendation


Nutrient Status

September 9, 2007


Nitrogen Phosphorous Potassium

Top Soil Nutrient Status– Jessore Sadar (New laboratory method)

Nutrient/ Fertilizer Recommendation – Jessore Sadar


Generalized Land Zoning

Seasonal Flood OR Flash Flood OR River Bank Erosion OR Land Slide OR Soil Erosion(NO)

Seasonal Flood OR Drought OR Null(YES)

Flash Flood OR River Bank Erosion OR Land Slide OR Soil Erosion OR Null(YES)

Seasonal Flood OR Flush flood OR Drought OR Salinity OR Null(YES)

Environmental Hazard

LevelNANALevelRelief

Extremely early to Very early

Normal to NAExtremely early to Normal

Early to LateSurface water recession

Excessively Drained to Imperfectly Drained

Poorly Drained to Very Poorly Drained

Excessively Drained to Moderately Well Drained

Excessively Drain to Poorly drained

Drainage

HighlandMedium Highland to Very Lowland

High LandHighland to Lowland

Landtype

Urban/ Industry Zone

Aquaculture ZoneForest ZoneAgriculture ZoneFactors



Legend

Land ZoningLand ZoningJessore DistrictJessore District

Online Fertilizer Recommendation System

• SRDI in collaboration with KATALYST developed an web based software named Online Fertilizer Recommendation System to generate location specific fertilizer recommendation for selected crops analyzing national nutrient database (using semi‐detailed soil survey data) developed by SRDI.

• Nutrient data (semi-detailed soil survey) are entered into the attribute table of sampling shape file

• Digital Soil and Landform map at the Union level administrative boundary are used

• Physiography, Land type, Drainage and texture attributes have been added in the attribute table of Soil and Land Form map

• Sampling Point map and Soil map have been intersected to get all necessary information in one file

• Data extracted from the intersected map were processed to generate Union level, physiography and land type wise nutrient status database

3. Online Data Entry into Software Database

Log in page of the software

Fertilizer Recommendation User Page

Training and Motivation

• For proper and smooth functioning of the system SRDI in collaboration with eGeneration is giving training to the BanglaLink Call Center Operator, GP-CIC Trainer and Farmer’s Motivation Team on use of the software

• To let the farmers know the service and develop confidence on the service Farmers Motivation program is being carried out

• KATALYST select the motivation team/farm and finance the program

• Motivation Team with the help of DAE field offices and through SRDI District Offices carryout motivational activities

Monitoring

• The Software has an inbuilt service delivery monitoring system called CRM [Customer Relation Management]

• CRM keeps record on –– Login historyLogin history

–– Fertilizer recommendation service history with name, location, Fertilizer recommendation service history with name, location, contact number of service receiver/farmer, land type, crop contact number of service receiver/farmer, land type, crop name, date, quantity of land etc.name, date, quantity of land etc.

Screen Shot of CRM Report

• Our soil database is being used mainly for ensuring food security

• Climate change adaptation and mitigation perspectives have not been duly addressed so far land degradation, salinity intrusion, carbon sequestration are concerned

• The formation of GSP‐GSM network could further our data base to be used in the most debated issue of land use – the environment smart agriculture

Soil Resource Development Institute (SRDI), Bangladesh

Thank You

Documents

Land and Soil for Agricultural Development in Bangladesh