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Soil Surveys and its implementation in the Lao-Swedish Upland Agriculture and Forestry Research Programme.

Terms of reference for this report, carried out May 2003, concerning the work by the Soil Survey and Classification Center (SSLCC) in the LSUAF programme, was to study and comment upon i) produced reports including conclusions drawn and recommendations made, ii) survey techniques used for collection of soil data on village level and suggest any relevant modifications, and iii) suggest development of links between soil data, actual land use and farmers perception. At the time of the report to villages were comprehensively studied; Nambo in the Louang Prabang province and Namonua in Oudomxai province. Comments are mainly based on interviews and on the Nambo report, which was translated to English. . The reports contained results on distribution of soil types with information on soil unit, soil depth, soil texture, slope steepness and topsoil fertility, and current land use. It was supported with a set of maps in the scale of 1:10 000, as well as a set of tables with soil data from different soil horizons. This corresponds well to the tasks for the programme Land Management Research component. The SSLCC has carried out a comprehensive work during a short time and produced useful and significant data in this field within a short period. Although some data may have to be revised, the overall picture is a good description of site conditions in the village areas. Some modifications are suggested below. There is a tendency to over-interpretation of the data partly because uncertainties in measurements are not mentioned or described, partly because soil maps are too detailed in relation to the achieved field data.

Published by: National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI) -
Uploaded on: Jun 2007
File size: 226 KB - Language: English
Keyword(s): Natural Resources Management
Category: Environment

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