Agriculture
& Soil
 Soils
Division was one of the first division to start Post
Graduate Diploma courses along with Geosciences &
Forestry & Ecology Division in 1966. The division was
imparting training in Soil Survey and Soil Conservation
using aerial photographs. With the introduction of
satellite data in the course curriculum in 1980, Crop
Inventory as third specialization was introduced and the
Soil Division was renamed as Agriculture & Soils
Division. Presently, the division imparts training and
education in three specialization namely Soil survey, Soil
Conservation and Crop Resource Survey. The division
conducts regular Post Graduate Diploma Course, CSSTE-AP
P.G. / M.Tech. course and 4 months Certificate course in
Soils and Land use Planning . The Division also
participate in conducting the newly introduced P.G.
Diploma / M.tech. course on “Hazard and Risk
Analysis”. Division also offer tailor made special
courses of short duration as per user’s demand on theme
specific.
This division has also
carried out many consultancies and technology development
projects related to soil survey, crop resource survey,
optimal land use planning and agro-meteorology. Apart from
this, it has significantly contributed to DOS sponsored
National Missions Projects on Integrated Mission for
Sustainable Development (IMSD), Waste Land Mapping ,
Integrated Resource Information System for Desert Area
(IRIS-DA) and Natural Resource Census (NR Census).
Facilities in the
Division:
Agriculture & Soils
division maintain a Soil Laboratory. The laboratory is
well equipped to carry out major soil and water analysis
of the samples collected during trainee project works and
research projects of the Division as well as the
Institute. The laboratory equipped with the instruments
such as :pH meter, EC meter, Spectrophotometer
(Spectronic-20), Flame photometer, Soil moisture meter
(Theta Probe), Disc Infilho meter, Tensiometer, Bulk
density sampler, Double ring infilhometer, Electronic
balance, etc.
Besides this, the division also has the following ground
truth instruments to observe crop growth variables during
field work :
· Plant canopy Analyzer
· Accu PAR
· Infrared Thermometer
· Gramin GPS
FUTURE THRUST
AREAS:
1. Core Research
Areas
· Linking remote sensing
derived LAI, ET and Fractional Photosynthetic Active
Radiation (FPAR) with crop growth simulation models for
precise yield forecasting.
· Phenological variability for discriminating crops in a
multi-crop or mixed crop regions.
· Crop simulation modeling
· Land surface processes parameterization and atmospheric
coupling
· Impact of Global Climate Change Scenario on crop
productivity
· Hyperspectral Imaging for crop vitality, soil
degradation and yield indicators.
· High spatial
resolution data in detail soil resource inventory
· Spatial variability of soils
· Bio-physical land evaluation modeling for land use
planning
· Microwave remote sensing in discrimination and mapping
land degradation
· Process based soil erosion modeling at hillslope and
catchments scale using optical and microwave remote
sensing data.
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