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Western Himalayas

The Western Himalayas is warm sub-humid to humid (inclusion of per-humid) AER, that
comprises of western Himalayas covering the areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal
Pradesh and Uttarakhand. It occupies an area of 21.2 m ha, representing 6.3 per cent of the
total geographical area of the country. The major soils occurring in the region are shallow
to deep, having high organic matter content with weak (A-C) to well-developed (A-Bt-C)
horizons. The common crops grown are wheat, millet, maize and rice. The terraced uplands
are cultivated with rice and/or horticultural plantation crops, like apple. It comprises of
five AESRs. Boron deficiency (44.9%) was highest in the region, whereas deficiencies of Cu,
Mn and Fe were negligible. Deficiency of Zn ranged from 5.4 to 27.8%, with the maximum
extent in foothills of Kumaun and south Kashmir & Kumaun Himalayas.

Assam and Bengal Plain

Assam and Bengal Plain having the hot sub-humid to humid (inclusion of per-humid)
climate comprises the Bramhaputra and the Ganga plains and covers parts of the states of
Assam and West Bengal with an area of 12.l m ha. The soils are represented b y level
to v e r y gently sloping Haplaquepts, Haplaualfs, Dystrochrepts, Eutrochrepts,
Fluvaquents, and Hapludalfs. The rice-based cropping systems are common in the
Brahmaputra, Teesta and Ganga Plains. In northern foothills of eastern Himalayas,
encompassing Teesta and Bramhaputra regions, plantation crops, such as tea and
horticultural crops like pineapple, citrus and banana are grown. Rice, jute, pulses, oilseeds
(mustard) are grown on stored/residual soil moisture in rabi season. There was rampant
deficiency of B (40.6%) particularly in Bengal basin and North Bihar plain. Deficiency of
Zn varied f r o m 16.2 to 28.5% in middle Brahmaputra plain. The deficiency of Fe, Mn and
Cu were negligible in the AER.

Eastern Himalayas

Eastern Himalayas with warm per-humid climate comprises of northern hilly parts of West
Bengal and northern parts of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, with an area of 9.6 m ha.
The dominant soils in the region vary from shallow to moderately shallow, loamy, brown
forest to deep, organic matter rich soils with moderate to low base status. In general, Jhum
cultivation is traditionally followed. Another type of traditional practice is the cultivation of
millets on upland terraces and potato, maize, millets and paddy in the valleys. In the lower
valleys, rice, maize, millets, potato, sweet potato, mustard, sesame and pulses are grown
under rainfed as well as irrigated conditions. At some places, cotton, mesta and sugarcane are
also grown under rainfed and irrigated conditions. In the hilly areas, vegetables and plantation
crops like tea, and medicinal crops, and horticultural crops like pineapple, citrus, apple, peer,
peach and banana are also grown on terraces. Deficiency of Zn (20.1%) was found
particularly in the foot-hill soils of Eastern Himalayas. The deficiency of Fe was not
observed, whereas very little Cu and Mn deficiency were found only in the Darjeeling and
Sikkim Himalayas. The highest magnitude of B deficiency (45.5%) was recorded in
Arunachal Pradesh (Subdued Eastern Himalayas).