Soil Survey, the Profession I Embraced: a Few Pages from my Tour Diary

Abstract

On 2022 World Soil Day (WSD), the author shares his experiences in soil surveys since his early days till date. Soil is the beginning of food, as mentioned in the year 2022 theme for WSD. Soil survey is the beginning of soil research regarding pedology, edaphology, and soil biology. The author delves into his experiences from different states, villages, and landscapes to identify varied soils. He argues about the grouping of soils and their utility in edaphology. Fieldwork, laboratory work, data generation, and dissemination are all critical; soil survey is the foundation of all such research activities. Fieldwork is strenuous, but in the long run, it's rewarding. The tour diary of the author describes the formation of spatially-associated Vertisols, Alfisols and Mollisols; besides, mention of Mollisols (brown forest soils) has been made the Histosols and their considerable capacity to be the hub of organic carbon which could be utilised as a model to combat climate change and global warming using artificial intelligence (AI). This soil database may serve as an essential engine for a negative emission strategy to combat global warming and assist land degradation neutrality (LDN). Starting his career in the Western Ghats, journeying through the tortuous paths of many terrains in the Satpura, Vindhyan, Himalayas, Northeastern regions and the southern Peninsula, the author returns to the same place at the end of his career, in the Western Ghats. He busy in research and continuing has been his quest for science.