Journal of Information and Computational Science ISSN: 1548-7741 AN ANALYSIS ON THE SOIL CHARACTERISTICS OF PERAMBALUR DISTRICT IN TAMILNADU M.Vijayalakshmi1 and R.Maniyosai2 1. Research Scholar, Department of Geography, Govt College, Kumbakkonam 2. Assistant Professor, PG and Research, Department of Geography, Govt Arts College, Kumbakonam ABSTRACT Soil is one of the most important non renewable basic resource on the earth’s surface. The study of soils, their geographic distribution and extent, behavior, potentials problems and suitability for various uses. In this paper an attempt was to assess the changes and mapping the soil character tics of perambalur district for the year of statistical data.Soil Charactertics her classify to soil colour, soil series,soiltexture,soil permeability, soil depth,soil calcareousness, soil salinity and crops grown was found. The soil of the study area classified as grey, red and brown. There are 6 soil series were identified in the study area by soil Survey and Land use Organization. The grey soil maximum covered the major part of the study area and her pilamedu, Kallakudi, Padalur, Kalagam, Kurumbalur and thevaiyur soil series found.Soils of veppanthattai, perambalur and veppur blocks are suitable for cotton and millets.The soil series is suitable for the cultivation of millets and horticulture. Key Words: soil characteristics, cropping pattern.GIS 1. INRODUCTION Soil is a product of the influence of climate, relief ,elevation, orientation, and slope of terrain, organisms, and its parent materials (original minerals) interacting over time. It continually undergoes development by way of numerous physical, chemical and biological processes, which include weathering with associated erosion. Given its complexity and strong internal connectedness, it is considered an ecosystem by ecologists. Physical properties of a soil including soil texture and soil structure are important to plant growth. Soil texture affects the soil ability to hold nutrients and water. Soil structure affects taeration,water holding capacity ,drainage and penetration of roots and also present study mainly focuses on the soil characteristics of perambalur district. The economy of the district mainly depends on the agriculture activities and cultivated in many millets, pulses and others. Socio-cultural conditions in decision making process Joerin et al.2001 to solving different land problems with multiple alternatives. Wang 1994 Geospatial techniques can be utilised for the identification of the suitable sites for the agricultural lands on different criteria like geology, topography, soil characteristics, and drainage. Deep and Saklani2014; Duc 2006Therefore, recent and accurate land use/land cover (LULC), and other environmental, geographical data should be considered for the determination of suitable agricultural land use. Ljusa and Pajovic (2002) investigated the Land suitability for rainfed agriculture in the province of Larache, Morocco .The study area Volume 10 Issue 3 - 2020 1274 www.joics.org Journal of Information and Computational Science ISSN: 1548-7741 was characterized by crops which were separated into three groups as food crops (maize, sugarcane, chickpea, potato, tomato, green pepper, onion, sunflower, and wheat), fodder crops (barley, sorghum, and alfalfa) and tree crops (citrus and olives), all with different agricultural management. The Sys et al. (1991) parametric method based on land evaluation framework for rainfed agriculture. The main step of this methodology was matching land characteristics against crop needs, giving in that way suitability rating for each land characteristic. The structural condition, texture, and packing of the soil all affect bulk density (Blake & Hartge, 1986). Soils with coarse (sand) textures tend to have a higher bulk density then soils with fine (clay) textures. The bulk density of a particular soil may vary related to the degree of packing, and thus, is often used as a measure of soil structure. 2. STUDY AREA Perambalur district is located in the central part of Tamilnadu.The district lies between 11° 00’ to 11°31’ north latitude and 78°36’to 79° 30’East longitude. The area extend of the study area is 1752sq.km .The district has 4taluks and 4 blocks. It is in inland district without coastal line. The district has vellar river in the north and it has well marked natural division .The study area comes under the sub basin vellar, kallar, sewtanadi, koneri, marudaiyaru and chinnar river. The average annual rainfall of the district is about 950 mm.The soils are moderately alkaline to strongly alkaline in organic carbon and the fertility of the soil is very low in some places of the district. (fig 1) 3. AIM AND OBJECTIVES The present study set the following main objective To know the soil series and soil permeability, water holding capacity, Land irrigability present here and find out the soil depth and texture of the district. To understand the calcareousness and salinity of the study area To study the type of crops grown the district. Volume 10 Issue 3 - 2020 1275 www.joics.org Journal of Information and Computational Science ISSN: 1548-7741 4. METHODOLOGY The base map is created for the present study area using SOI Toposheets and to achieve the above aims and objectives the following method are use. Maps are prepared based on GIS. Secondary type of data is used for the study Soil Atlas of Thanjavur District prepared by Soil Survey of land use Department of Agriculture Tamil Nadu is used for this study. 5. ANALYSIS OF SOIL CHARACTERTICS 5.1 Soil Colour Colour is the most obvious and easily determined of soil charecteristics.although it has little direct influence on the functioning of the soil, one may infer a great deal about a soil from its colour.it is considered with other observable features.colour is one of the most useful important characteristics for soil identification especially when combined with soil structure.f . Table: 1 .Soil colour Perambalur district S.NO SOIL COLOUR SOIL SERIES Area extent sqkm % to (ha) total 1. Red soil kallagam,kurumbalur,pad 1154 11.54 0.65 alur 2. Brown soil thevaiyur 2430 24.3 1.38 3. Grey soil Kallakkudi, pilamed,. 102389 1023.8 58.26 9 Source: Soil Atlas Thanjavur The district of Perambalur is covered by red soil Brown soil and Grey soil. The study area predominated by Grey soil. It is studied that the Grey soil is the predominated soil type in perambalur district.which is covered by 58.26% of the area in 1023.89 Sq.km, Grey soil found in veppanthattai taluk, kunnamtaluk and Alathur taluks of maximum areas. This soil is much suitable for millets, pulses, and cotton are well suited for cultivation.(figure 2) Volume 10 Issue 3 - 2020 1276 www.joics.org Journal of Information and Computational Science ISSN: 1548-7741 6. SOIL SERIES Oil series is grouping of soil having similar profile characteristics developed from similar parent material under the same climatic conditions, in perambalur district six soil series have been identified in three taluk.pilamedu( 8029ha ) ,followed by kallakudi(24888 ha ) and Padalur(8029 ha) had the highest extend of soils. Soil series describes the nature of soil at determined depth Soil series of perambalur district is shown in fig 3 .It is understood that six types of soil series are found in perambalur district. They are kallagam(klg) 73.5 sq.km pilamedu (plm) 553.7 6Sq.km kallakudi(Klk) 248.8Sq.km ,padalur(pdl) 80.2 Sq.km ,kurumbalur(Kbr) 68.54 Sq.km and theviyur(Tvr) 14.53Sq.km. Table 2: Soil series extend (ha) S Soil series Kunnam perambalur veppanthattai Total % Sq.km .no extend(ha) area Taluk 1 Kallagam(klg) 7351 - - 7351 4.2 73.5 2 Kallakkudi(klk) 23497 - 1391 24888 14.3 248.88 3 Kurumbalur(kbr) - 6854 - 6854 3.9 68.54 4 Padalur(pdl) 1652 4478 1899 8029 4.6 80.29 5 Pilamedu(plm) 16741 11215 27420 55376 31.5 553.76 6 Thevaiyur(Tvr) 2023 - 1453 3476 1.91 14.53 Volume 10 Issue 3 - 2020 1277 www.joics.org Journal of Information and Computational Science ISSN: 1548-7741 Kallagam soil series (klg) occur in south eastern part of the district. very deep and fine loam soil. Drainage well drained.Rainfed area chilli, millets coriander, cotton and pulses are cultivated. It extent upto 7351(ha) and 4.2%. Kallakkudi(klk) soil series14.3% occur in south and north eastern part of the district in kunnam and veppanthattai taluk and Moderately well drained. Kurumbalur(kbr) soil series 3.9% found in southwestern part ,padalur soil series 4.6% found in central eastern part ,pilamedu(plm)soilseries31.5% in north central part andThevaiyur(tvr)1.91%minimum occur in north part of kunnam taluk of perambalur district. Pilamedu soil is the dominant soil series in the study area. 7. SOIL TEXTURE Soil texture is the basic indicator of soil physical and chemical properties of soils. Soils with heavy texture or soils with marked textural changes in profile are more susceptible to salinisation and have drainage and reclamation problems. The district soil texture classified as fine, fine loamy and coarse loamy. It is understood that the whole district943.83 sq.km covered by fine soil with high clay content.83.16 sq.km in moderate clay content and 1.86 sq.km in open texture (Fig4). Volume 10 Issue 3 - 2020 1278 www.joics.org Journal of Information and Computational Science ISSN: 1548-7741 Table 3 Soil Texture S.N SOIL TEXTURE SOIL SERIES Extent Sq.km % O area (ha) 1 Fine (soils with kallakkudi,kalath high clay content) ur 94387 943.87 53.70 And pilamedu 2 Fine loamy(soils kallagam, and 8316 83.16 4.73 with moderate clay thevaiyur Content 3 coarse loamy (open padalur 3270 32.7 1.86 textured) 8. PERMEABILITY The characteristics a soil that enables water or air or plant roots to move through, known as permeability.Permeability decreases with increasing fine texture.