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- ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi
- ICAR-Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, New Delhi (IASRI)
- ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack (NRRI)
- ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research, Karnal (IIWBR)
- ICAR-Central Institute of Cotton Research, Nagpur (CICR)
- ICAR-Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Varanasi (IIVR)
- ICAR-National Research Centre on Banana (NRCB)
- ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal (IISS)
- ICAR- National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, Nagpur (NBSS&LUP)
- ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management, Bhubaneshwar (IIWM)
- ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal (CIAE)
- ICAR- Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology, Ludhiana (CIPHET)
- ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal (NDRI)
- ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai (CIFE)
- ICAR- Central Inland Fishery Research Institute, Barrakpore (CIFRI)
- ICAR- Central Institute of Fresh Aquaculture, Bhubaneswar (CIFA)
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Aim/Agenda
About us:
Government of India established All India Soil Survey Organisation in 1956 with the Headquarters at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute Nagpur with five Regional Soil Correlation Centres at Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata, Jorhat and Udaipur. Later in 1958, this scheme was integrated with the Land Use Planning Scheme of the Central Soil Conservation Board primarily to carry out detailed soil surveys in the catchment areas of major River Valley projects, with setting-up the organisation, “All India Soil and Land Use Survey”.
In 1969, it was re-organized and the research aspects of soil survey, classification and correlation were transferred to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the developmental activities was retained under the Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Food and Agriculture. In 1976 it became an independent Institute of ICAR named as National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning (NBSS&LUP) and continued to function at the IARI, New Delhi. In June 1978, the Headquarters of the Bureau, was shifted to Nagpur. It is located in a new and spacious buildings situated on Amravati Road, 7 km away from main railway station and 1.5 km from Nagpur University Campus.
The NBSS&LUP is one among the chain of ICAR Institutes. In line with the recommendations of the Task Force on Land and Soil Resources (1972) which suggested the need for soil correlation, uniform nomenclature and proper soil mapping and also the presidential notification on December 15, 1973, the duties with respect to research, training, correlation, classification, mapping and interpretation were allotted to the NBSS&LUP.
What we do:
ICAR-NBSS&LUP is mandated:
- To conduct soil survey and mapping of the soils of the country to promote scientific and optimal land use programmes in collaboration with relevant institutions and agencies.
- To conduct and promote research in the National Agricultural Research System in the areas of pedology, soil survey, remote sensing applications, land degradation, land evaluation and land use planning.
- To impart training and education to create awareness on soil and land resources and their state of health.
The Bureau has been engaged in carrying out soil resource survey, agro-ecological zoning and land degradation mapping for the country, states and districts. Bureau is also actively involved in qualitative assessment and monitoring of the soil health for viable land use planning. In past, bureau has developed soil resource map of the country on 1: 1 million scale, for the states on 1:250000 scale and for 75 districts of the country on 1:50000 scale. ICAR-NBSS & LUP has initiated and progressed enough in developing land resource inventory on 1: 10000 scale for the country through systematic soil surveys, using the latest geo-spatial techniques. Since the generation of such large-scale information is time- consuming and resource intensive, the ICAR-NBSS&LUP has developed a hybrid methodology that relies on modern tools to hasten the pace of soil survey data acquisition while preserving the essence of traditional soil surveys. The operating protocol involves a sequence of steps starting from the acquisition and processing of satellite data, preparing a sampling plan that minimizes the number of profiles to be studied/samples to be collected while capturing maximum soil variability, systematic soil survey, laboratory analysis and modeling for depth-wise soil characterization, to generation of agricultural land use and soil & water conservation plans.
The research activities of Bureau have resulted in identifying the soil potentials and problems, and the various applications of the soil surveys with the ultimate objective of sustainable agricultural development.
Expertise available with the Institute:
- Soil resource mapping using GIS and remote sensing and other latest technologies
- Soil spectroscopy and modelling for estimating soil parameters
- Developing different algorithms and expertise in machine and deep learning
- Soil quality and fertility assessment for site specific nutrient requirement
- Crop suitability analysis and land use planning and contingency planning at village/ watershed/ district/ state level
- Web-GIS including development of geoportals and mobile apps for modeling and dissemination of soil resource data
Objectives of the sub-project:
- To develop soil spectral library and spectral models for quick assessment of different soil attributes
- To generate digital maps of soil attributes for precision farming sites.
- To work out soil-site suitability and suggest alternate land use plants for selected precision farming sites.