Soil is nature’s gift to man kind.

Over thousands of years, soil has spread over land due to wind, rain and floods. Soil differs from place to place in its shape, color, quality and thickness. These differences are due to the weather and surface condition. At some places like the hills the soil is very thin, other places like in Deltas the soil is very deep.

The country has variety of soils, which can be used for agriculture. They can be broadly categorized as alluvial soil, desert soil, black soil and red soil.

Alluvial soil- this type soil is found mostly in northern plains. This soil is very fertile. Rivers in spate are always muddy because they carry large amounts of alluvial soil with them. They deposit this soil on their banks. Because of rivers this soil spread over long distances. The rivers like the Ganga, the Indus and the Brahmaputra in the northern plains deposit this soil in the course of their journey.

The black soil is found in the northwestern parts of the Deccan plateau. This soil is sticky when wet and difficult to plough through. It is made up of rocks made by lava. Lava is the molten rock, which flows out of a volcano. When it cools down it become a rock. The soils formed by these rocks are very good for growing cotton and sugarcane. Black soil is better known as cotton soil.

Red soil- in other parts of the Deccan plateau the soil is in red color. Here the soil is less fertile. Red soil is also known as Laterite soil. It is good for growing grounds, pluses, Jowar, bajra etc.

Desert soil- the soil northwestern parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat are sandy. Due to shortage of water nothing much is grown here. The soil is not fertile. However when the soil is irrigated it becomes helpful for growing crops like gram, millet, wheat, dates, etc.