Farmers's wisdom of soil taxonomy and fertility management dynamics is based on trial and error, problem solving and group approach to manage the natural resources. The farmers' knowledge of defining the soil taxonomy and fertility management practices is compatible to their adaptive skills and rich source of location-specific ecological information.

Measurement of unsaturated hydraulic conductivity in vadose zone is a very difficult task. It is estimated using mathematical or empirical relations. The unsaturated hydraulilc conductivity with respect to water content or suction is estimated using standard empirical relations. These empirical relations use saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) as one of the parameters.

The paper describes the effect of rains on vegetal cover, different traditional practices and soil properties in the dry and monsoon period. Seven landuse systems i.e. open pine forests, tea plantation, rainfed agriculture, degraded land, grassland, recently restored site and a bare land were identified in the Bhetagad watershed of the Central Himalaya.

Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

India s soils are in a bad shape. T V Jayan investigates

Fertilisers boost plant growth but imbalanced application soon leads to use-fatigue

Agricultural growth in India has always laboured under the burden of producing more. The idea was: grow only foodgrains. That meant: not ecologically adapted cereals such as millets, but rice and