Kesle Deewj yeeæpeej

"AGROCLIMATIC ZONES" IN THE INTEREST OF FARMARS

Madhya Pradesh government is honestly serious about farmers problems. In his connection the government has implimented Agroclimatic Zone wise schemes. The Madhya Pradesh state is situated between 18^o-26^o 30^o' N latitude and 74^o-84^o 30' E longitude out of 44.34 m ha total geographical area of the state, 19.66 m ha is net area sown and 14.29 m ha is under forest (it is called Land use classification)

I, express my sincere thanks to Sh. Surender Nath, IAS, who has recently joined his duties after coming on deputation from central government as Agricultural Production Commissioner [APC], Government of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal for taking immediate, keen interest in this field and specially to sort out the problems of marginal and small farmers and unemployment. Mr. Nath has also written a letter to All District Collectors related to this subject. (Letter in Box.).

The country has been divided into three major physiographic-regions viz., the mountain region of the Himalayas, the great Indo-Gangetic and Brahmaputra plains and the triangular plateau of the peninsula.

The Madhya Pradesh state falls under the region of triangular plateau of the peninsula which is sub divided into as per land form units. Major land form units of M.P. is :- 1. Northern Plains 2. Central Highlands 3. Eastern plateau 4. Deccan plateau.

I, believe we are now in a position to launch an EVER GREEN revolution that can help increase yield, income and livehoods per units of land water, if we bring about a paradig shift in our agricultural Research and Development (R&D) strategies. The green revolution was triggered by the genetic manipulation of yields in croups such as Rice, Wheat and Maize. The ever green revolution will be triggered by farming systems that can help produce more from the available land, water and labour resources without either ecological or social harms.

The development support should begin from sound soil water power and seed management and supply of quality seed of imported varieties of various crops. Technology transfer from the laboratories to farmers holding should be done on a war-footing. Water management, market development and post-harvest technologies and infrastructure should be given more impractive to achieve high production and productivity, besides increasing the profitability of the farmers. There is scope for increasing the production without endangering the ecological assets and this is a welcome trend towards sustainable agriculture

This should frame a solid foundation for an "ever green revolution" that would take the farmers in to the new millennium with hope.

The soil, a natural resource even today is less understood and less recognized in comparison to plants. The school going children do recognize and can describe plants and animals, but only a few people are able to do the same for soils, perhaps this is also one of the major contributing features for increasing degradation of soil resources. There cannot be any substsinable development without a sustainable management of soil resources. for better management, it is imperactive to know the characteristics, potentials and problems of soil resources in different agroclimatic zones of our state [M.P.]

Madhya Pradesh (undevided state), was, a resources rich rank firs in geographical area and from the point of view of soils it can be called as Mini India as the dominant soil groups of the countrey cover large tracts in the state. These soils, however, are faced with problems of tillage, drainage, erosion, drought, excess moisture and nutrient deficiency stress, and hazards of waterlogging, salinity and alkalinity. It is, Therefore, necessary that the developed technology be transferred at an accelerated rate and systematic research. Efforts should be made to devise location specific technology for harnessing the potential of these soils.

Significant efforts have been made in characterizing soil resources of different agro climatic zones of Madhya Pradesh and pressenting a mirror image of nutrient status of various soils along with their major problems and potentials. Attempts have been made here in this article to bring this useful information under one article. This information will be surely be hepful in increasing the agricultural production and productivity of the Madhya Pradesh state.

Major soils of the country such as Vertisoils, Inceptisoils, Entisoils and Alfisols cover large tracts of the Madhya Pradesh state. These soils are highly diversified and are being cultivate primarily under rainfed conditions. Vertisoils and associated soils, covering around 50 percent of the geographical area, are potentially productive but are faced with problems of drainage, tillage, and excess moisture and drought stress. If managed properly, these may prove to be the grainaries of the country. The second biggest group of soils is of alfisoils which are inherently poor in fertility and moisture retention capacity. The third major group is of alluvial soils which have high percentage of irrigated farming and are faced with problems of salinity/wateriogging along with deficiency of major plant nutrients. Some of the soils are reported to be deficient in secondary and micronutrients, specifically in S and Zn also wasteland. Such as gullied and/or Ravinous lands. Degraded forest/plantation crops/ pasture lands and mining industrial waterlands cover large tracts of the state. for better understanding and developing location specific technology it is necessary that the valuable information on various aspects of the soil scattered in various reports and publications be put together.

Concept of Agro climatic Zones : The concept of agro climatic zoning was developed by FZO (1976) which involved an ecological frame work with a strong emphasis on agro climatic parameters for delineating potential areas for agriculture. An agroclimatic zone is a land units in terms of major climate and the growing period which is climatically suitable for a certain range of crops and cultivaters. An ecological region is characterized by destinet ecological resposes to macro climate as expressed in vegetation and reflected in soils, fauna and aquatic systems.

Agriculture is highly depends on soils and climatic conditions, which in combination with other parameters decide the agro ecological setting. An agroecological region is, therefore, the land unit on the earth's surface carved out of agro climatic region, when it is superimposed on land form and the kind of soils and soil conditions that act as modifiers of climate and lenght of growing period (NBSS & LUP, 1933), Out of 15 major agro climatic zones (as follow) of India (Planning Commission) : following three are spread over Madhya Pradesh (undivided) :

Agro Climatic Zones : Further, the National Agricultural Research Project (NARP), based on rain fall, existing cropping pattern and administrative units, devided the whole country into 129 sub-zones, out of which 12 sub zones of undivided M.P., hereafter referred as "Agro climatic Zones" and maximium geograohical area of the state in percentage are as following :

I. Chhattisgarh plains (17.55%) II. Baster plateau (8.82%) III. Northern hills zone of Chhattisgarh (12.5%) IV. Kaymore plateau and satpura hills (11.27 %) V. Vindhya plateau (9.61%) VI. Central Narmada vally (3.40%) VII. Gird zone (8.46%) VIII. Bundelkhand zone (4.67%) IX. Satpura plateau (4.94%) X. Malwa plateau (11.68%) XI. Nimar vlley (5.67%) XII. Jhabua hills occupies only(1.5%) area. it is the lowest among all the zones of M.P.

Agro climatic regions and Hordiculture crops in M.P. are shown in Table : A (pl.see).

Table : A Agro climatic regions and horticultural crops in M.P.
S.No.	Name of Agro climatic region	Rainfall range Mm.	Soil type	Name of Districts	Horticulture Crops Recommended
1.	Chhattisgarh plain Balaghat district	1200 to 1600	Sandy loam light blace	Balaghat	Mango, chiku, guava, lime, banana, papaya, munga, pomegranate, colocasia, aonla in irrigated condition turmeric, chillies, ginger, jack fruit, ber, in arid condition (all type of vegetables).
2.	Northern hill region of chhattisgarh	1200 to 1600	Red Yellow medium black (medium/light)	Shahdol, Sidhi and part of Mandla, Dindori	Pear, peach, litchi, mango, jack fruit, coffee, turmeric, ginger, tree spices, off-season vegetables, medicinal aromatic crops
3.	Kymore plateau satpura hills	1100 to 1400	Shallow, black with red soil	Rewa, Satna, part of Panna, Seoni, Umaria, Katni	Mango guava, lime, ber, aonla, chillies, coriander and other seasonal vegetables.
4.	Central Narmada valley	1200 to 1600	Deep black, sandy loam	Jabalpur, Narsin-ghpur, Hoshanga bad, Harda	Mango, acidlime, mandarin, ber, guava, aonla, papaya, medicinal aromatic plants, all type of seasonal vegetables.
5.	Vindhya plateau	1200 to 1400	Medium deep black, gravelley	Bhopal, Sehore,Raisen, Guna, Vidisha, Sagar and Damoh	Mandarin, acidlime, mosambi, aonla, pomegranate, mango, ber, chiku, papaya, turmeric, chillies, coriander, ajwine and all seasonal vegetables.
6.	Gird region	800 to 1000	Alluvial, loamy, loam loamy light	Bhind, Morena, Sheopur, Gwalior, Shivpuri	Mandarin and sweet orange, lime, under assured irrigation and guava, ber, aonla, custardapple under rainfed condition coriender, chillies, garlic seasonal vegetables.
7.	Bundelkhand	800 to 1400	Mixed red and black (medium)	Chhatarpur, Datia, Tikamgarh, part	Santra mosambi, acidlime, aonla, mango, chiku, karonda, ginger turmeric, dioscoria, colocasia. of Panna (with protection in winter in early stages)
8.	Satpura plateau	1000 to 1200	Shallow black gravelley	Betul, Chhindwara	Santra, mosambi, acidlime, mango, guava, ber, chhilies, turmeric, flower marigold, colecrops other vegetables.
9.	Malwa plateau	1000 to 1200	Medium black gravelley	Shivpuri (partial) Guna, Ratlam, Ujjain, North part of Jhabua, Dhar, Indore, Dewas	Santra, acidlime, mosambi, grape, chiku under irrigated conditions, ber, guava, pomegranate, coriander, fenugreek and vegetables.
10.	Nimar plains	800 to 1000	Medium black	Khandwa, Khargone, Kukshi, Manawar tehsil of Dhar district.	Mango, banana, grape, papaya, chiku, lime, guava and pomegranate in irrigated condition turmeric, chillies, colocasia, fennel and seasonal vegetables.
11.	Jhabua hills	800 to 1000	Medium gravelley black, light medium	Jhabua district	Lime, mosambi, ber, guava, aonla, custard apple, pomegranate, seasonal vegetables, garlic, methi.