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These soils were studied first by the British geographer F. Buchanan in 1905. Their name has been derived from the Latin word “Later’ which means ‘brick’. These soils, when wet, are as soft as butter, but become quite hard and cloddy on drying. These are the typical soils of the monsoon climate which is characterised by seasonal rainfall. The alternating wet and dry seasons lead to the leaching away of the siliceous matter of the rocks leading to the formation of such soils. The red colour of the soils is due to the presence of iron-oxide. These soils developed mainly in the highland areas of the plateau. The soils in the higher areas are generally more acidic than those in the low-lying areas.
Laterite soils cover an area of about 12.2 million hectares accounting for about 3.7 per cent of the total reporting area of the country. They are found mainly in the hills of Western Ghats, Eastern Ghats, Rajmahal Hills, Satpura, Vindhya, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, North Cachar Hills of Assam, and the Garo Hills of Meghalaya.
These soils are rich in iron and aluminium, but poor in nitrogen, potash, potassium, lime and organic matter. Although they have low fertility, they respond well to manuring. They are mainly devoted to rice, ragi, sugarcane, and cashewnuts.