Land 

and Soil Resources Database for Grass‐Root 
Agricultural Development in Bangladesh
S.M. Imamul Huq1 and A.F.M. Manzurul Hoque2

1Professor, Department of Soil, Water and Environment, 

University of Dhaka, Dhaka ‐1000,Bangladesh.
2Senior Scientific Officer, Soil Resource Development Institute, 

Dhaka‐1215, Bangladesh.
Location of Bangladesh
Bangladesh lies between 20034/
and 26038/ north latitude and
88001/ and 92041/ east longitudes.
Located as an interface of two
different environments - the Bay
of Bengal in the south and the
Himalayas in the north.
Sits astride the tropic of cancer.
Bordered by India in the west,
north and east except for a small
portion in the south-east by
Myanmar. The entire south of
the country is occupied by the
Bay of Bengal.
Physiography
¾ The three broad physiographic units
belonging to three distinct
geological ages:
A. Tertiary hills occupying 12%
area
B. Pleistocene terraces covering
8% area and
C. Recent floodplains spreading
about 80% area of the country.

¾ These three physiographic units are

again categorized into 20 different
physiography considering their
geomorphology and origin of soils.
 Climate and Agriculture
¾ Humid tropical monsoon type with three distinct
meteorological seasons – summer, monsoon and winter.
¾ The rainfall ranges from 1500 mm in the northwest to
5000 mm in the northeast.

¾ The rainfall along with depth and duration of flooding is

the main critical factor for agriculture in Bangladesh.

¾ The critical aspects of rainfall in relation to the use of land

for agriculture is related to the uncertainty of the onset
and departure of the monsoon as well as occurrence of
droughts.
¾ Based on the climate, physiography and soil, Bangladesh
has been divided into 30 Agro Ecological Zones (AEZ)
 Soils of Bangladesh
¾ Data on land and soils of Bangladesh was
almost nonexistent before mid sixties.
¾The first account of the landscape and soils in
Bangladesh was published in 1956 where the
country was divided into seven soil tracts
based on the geological origin of soils
without considering the soil forming factors.

Table 1. The Seven Soil Tracts of Bangladesh*

No. Soil Tracts Area Sq. Km. Typical Soil
(estimated) Series**
1 Madhupur Tract 10,000 Tejgaon
2 Barind Tract 13,000 Amnura
3 Tista Silt 16,000 Gangachara
4 Brahmaputra Alluvium 40,000 Ghatail
5 Gangetic Alluvium 27,000 Sara
6 Coastal Saline Tract 20,000 Barisal
7 Chittagong Hill Tract 15,000 Kaptai

*Islam and Islam (1956), **SRDI (1965-1976)

 Soils of Bangladesh (Contd.)
¾ Rainfall is high in the north-east and
gradually declines towards the west.

¾ Considering the climate as the most

active pedogenic factor, Bangladesh was
divided into three zones:
A. Humid
B. Semi-Humid
and
C. Feebly Arid.

¾ A pedoclimatic zone was defined as

representing an aea where the climatic
factor working on parent material has
produced similar soils.
.
 Soils of Bangladesh (Contd.)
Zone No. Name of Pedoclimatic Zone Areas and Associated Soil Types
Zone 1 Humid The north-east and east
submountainean hill tracts, south and
south-east coastal lands. The probable
soil association in the zone is a
podzolic type including alluvial.
Zone 2 Semi-Humid The north-notheast flat and the south-
wet lowland. The probable soil
association being of degraded lateritic
and alluvial.
Zone 3 Feebly Arid The rest of Bangladesh. The probable
soil association being of a lateritic and
also of a pedocalic type including
alluvial.
 Reconnaissance Soil Survey (RSS)
¾ The information on land and soils of Bangladesh
published during 1956-1957were of no significance in
practical use since these were produced without much
field investigation.

¾ Systematic generation of primary data regarding land

and soil resources started during the early sixties by
undertaking the Reconnaissance Soil Survey (RSS)
program under the Soil Survey Project of the then East
Pakistan with the active cooperation of FAO.

¾ The RSS was based on intensive aerial photo

interpretation followed by field examination of soils
made along planned traverses across the landscapes.

¾ A total of 465 soil series (taxonomic unit) were

identified, described and classified particularly for the
agro-service purpose through the RSS during 1965-
1976.
 Reconnaissance Soil Survey (RSS)
¾ Soil series were identified on the basis of differentiating characteristics such as texture,
nature of the horizon developed, soil reaction, consistence etc.

¾ The physical and chemical properties of 465 soil series were determined in the
laboratory and all the analytical results were subsequently published in the 33 RSS
reports.

¾ Soils were mapped at the scale of 1:125000 in terms of geographical associations or

complexes of soil series and phases. A total of 1034 soil associations (groups of soils
that occur together within part or all of a physiographic unit or subunit) were mapped.

¾ The smallest soil series has an area of only 11 ha while the largest one has an area of
486,493 ha. The average area of a soil series is 23,989 ha.

¾ Total covered area in the RSS was 11,466,913 ha. Forest occupying 15% of the land in
Bangladesh has not been covered by RSS.
 Contribution of RSS
¾ RSS in Bangladesh successfully filled the vacuum that existed for a long time. Through RSS
people could get first hand information about the soils of Bangladesh.. Through their
characterization in soil taxonomy , everybody could have some knowledge on the nature of
Bangladesh soils.

¾ Some basic soil properties; morphological, physical and chemical properties of soils were made
available.

¾ The information contained in the RSS reports, a comprehensive classification of Bangladesh

soils was carried out by Brammer in 1971. Through this descriptive classification, the
classification of the sols in Bangladesh was made understandable to the layman.

¾ The information contained in the RSS reports were utilized in making the AEZ map of
Bangladesh (FAO-UNDP, 1988).

¾ Soils (taxonomic units) were classified according to two international soil classification system,
-the US soil taxonomy and the FAO-UNESCO legend based on RSS data.

¾ RSS based information has been used as the baseline data to conduct the semi-detailed soil
survey of the country during 1986-2001 for publishing the ‘Land and Soil Resource Utilization
Guide’ for upazilas (sub-districts) of the county.
 General Soil Map of Bangladesh
¾ Brammer in 1971 classified the soils of
Bangladesh into 20 general types based on
RSS data.

¾ FAO-UNDP developed a “General Soil

Map’ on the basis of Brammer’s
classification at the time of making a ‘Land
Resource Appraisal for Agricultural
Development of Bangladesh in 1988

¾ Later in 1997 SRDI developed another General

Soil Map of the country on the basis of RSS data and
further field verification
 General Soil Map of Bangladesh
No. General Soil Type Area (ha)

1 Non -calcareous Alluvium 303180

2 Calcareous Alluvium 934513
3 Acid Sulphate Soils 458287
4 Peat 183743
5 (a-f) Grey Floodplain Soils 1417917
6 (a-b) Grey Floodplain Soils & Non-calcareous Brown 352713
Floodplain Soils
7 Mixed Grey, Dark Grey & Brown Floodplain 37641
Soils
8 Grey Floodplain & Non-calcareous Dark Grey 489668
Floodplain Soils
9a Surma-Kushiyara Floodplain Soils 302466
9b Comilla Basin Soils 16791
10 Grey Piedmont Soils 345523
11 Acid Basin Clay 471400
12 Non Calcareous Dark Grey Floodplain Soils 559470
 General Soil Map of Bangladesh
No. General Soil Type Area (ha)

13 Calcareous Dark Grey Floodplain Soils & 1377233

Calcareous Brown Floodplain Soils
14 Calcareous Dark Grey Floodplain Soil s with 64612
Lime Kankar
15 Non-calcareous Brown Floodplain Soils & Grey 250548
(a-b) Floodplain Soils
16 Balck Terai Soils 59652
17a Mainly Deep, Brown Soils on Low Hills, Mainly 556659
Steep Sloping
17b Deep & Shallow Brown Soils on Very Steep, High 599017
Hills
18a Madhupur Tract Soils 263607
18b Baind Tract Soils 52126
18c Akhaura Terrace Soils 10257

19a Mainly Level Terrace Soils 389037

19b Closely Dissected Terrace Soils 45734

19c Old Piedmont-plain Soils 45898

 Agro Ecological Zones
Based on the RSS data on land types and soils,
physiography and climate, Bangladesh has been divided
into 30 AEZ (FAO-UNDP, 1988)

Table - 4: Area (ha) Covered by Different AEZ

AEZ No AEZ Name Area(ha)

1 Old Himalayan Piedmont Plain 278361
2 Active Tista Floodplain 64488
3 Tista Meander Floodplain 657525
4 Karatoya Bangali Floodplain 172647
5 Lower Atrai Basin 57806
Lower Punabhabhava
6 Floodplain 10030
Active Brahmaputra-Jamuna
7 Floodplain 233910
Young Brahmaputra & Jamuna
8 Floodplain 401258
 Agro Ecological Zones
Table - 4: Area (ha) Covered by Different AEZ

AEZ No AEZ Name Area(ha)

11 High Ganges River Floodplain 896031
12 Low Ganges River Floodplain 543891
13 Ganges Tidal Floodplain 1054927
14 Gopalganj Khulna Bils 154530
15 Arial Bil 9270
16 Middle Meghna River Floodplain 116705
17 Lower Meghna River Floodplain 60336
18 Young Meghna Estuarine Floodplain 367913
19 Old Meghna Estuarine Floodplain 531051
20 Eastern Surma-Kushiyara Floodplain 328324
21 Sylhet Basin 319033
22 Northern & Eastern Piedmont Floodplain 298483
 Agro Ecological Zones
Table - 4: Area (ha) Covered by Different AEZ

AEZ No AEZ Name Area(ha)

23 Chittagong Coastal Plain 233009
24 St. Martin’s Coral Island 207
25 Level Barind Tract 347077
26 High Barind Tract 107834
27 North Eastern Barind Tract 78602
28 Madhupur Tract 287831
29 Northern & Eastern Hills 1245806
30 Akhaura Terrace 5022
9598381
Sundarban 427418
Reserve Forest 284210
Others 4446991
Total 14757000
 Soil Classification
(US Soil Taxonomy & FAO-Unesco Legend)

¾ Soil series identified through RSS, according to US

soil taxonomy comfortably fit into five orders,
such as: Inceptisols, Entisols, Ultisols, Histosols
and Mollisols. There were 12 suborders, 21 great
groups and 56 subgroups in this country (Hussain,
1992).

¾ According to FAO-UNESCO legend of soil

classification system, the soil series identified
through RSS has been categorized mainly into 35
FAO-Unesco soil units. These occur mainly as
Fluvisols, Gleysols, Leptosol, Arenosol, Cambisol,
Luvisol, Planosol, Alisol, Histosol and Anthrosol.
¾ Soils of Bangladesh have never been classified at
the ‘Family Level’
 Semi Detailed Soil Survey
¾ Although RSS was conducted to generate land and soil data for agro service purpose, but the
use of these data were limited only to planners and researchers. RSS data could not be widely
used at the farmers’ level.

¾ Considering this issue, Soil Resource Development Institute (SRDI) undertook the program of
semi-detailed soil survey particularly to publish the ‘Land and Soil Resources Utilization
Guide’ for different upazilas (sub-districts) of the country in 1985.

¾ Through the semi-detailed soil survey a huge data/information on land and soil resources of
the individual upazilla of the country were collected, soils were mapped at the scale of
1:50000 and grouped in terms of their similarities in physico-chemical properties,
physiographic and AEZ based distribution.

¾ About 50,000 topsoil samples collected for 324 soil groups during the semi-detailed soil
survey were analyzed in the laboratory to determine their physico-chemical properties.

¾ All these data thus generated concerning land quality and soil characteristics have been
converted to digital format using GIS (Geographic Information System) technology.
•
 Semi Detailed Soil Survey
Legend
 Utilization of Semi Detailed Soil Survey Data

¾ The “Land and Soil Resources Utilization Guide’ – is popularly known as Upazila
Nirdeshika
This guide has been used for land use planning, crop specific fertilizer
recommendation and post disaster agricultural management.

¾ Subsequently a customized software named SOLARIS (SOil and LAnd Resources

Information System) and a web based software known as OFRS (Online Fertilizer
Recommendation System) has been developed to provide different type of service to the
beneficiaries including crop suitability assessment and crop-specific fertilizer
recommendation for grass root level agricultural development.

¾ The utilities of SOLARIS and OFRS will presented through the following slides
 CONTENTS OF SOLARIS

• All information, data and tables  included in 
Upazila Nirdeshika:
– Mapping Unit, physiography, landform, land type, Soil group, 
Water recession during dry season, limitation of mapping unit, Any 
hazard (Flood, drought, salinity, erosion etc.), analytical data, soil 
sampling points, Crop suitability, fertilizer recommendation etc.
– 5500 mapping unit, 1.7 m polygon, 54 unique fields in addition to  
50,000 point data on soil nutrient (14 elements: NPK…..pH, 
OM….etc)
• Software developed using Visual Basic as front‐
end and MS Access in back‐end.
• Mapping tools is designed using ArcGIS 9.1
Mapping Unit vs Polygon
 SOLARIS – Startup Window

Solaris-DI

Solaris-GIS
 SOLARIS – Menu System

Menu System

Toolbar

Administrative Crop Information

Information AEZ Info
Map unit Info
Land Information Soil Information Climate Info Cropping Pattern

Analysis Tool
 SOLARIS - DI

SOLARIS
Data Interpreter
 Upazila Map

September 9, 2007
 SOLARIS- Analysis Tool

Analysis is integrated with the SOLARIS Data Interpreter

User can analyze and give feed back to the GIS unit for updating

User can view, print reports and charts

 SOLARIS - GIS

Classified Analysis: Mapping unit based

Soil Texture – Top soil, Sub soil, Substratum
Soil Group, Land type classification, Landform,
Surface Water Recession characteristics, Drainage, Available
moisture, Slope classification
 SOLARIS - GIS
Land Type Map
Bangladesh

Legend
Soil Texture
Top soil – Comilla District

Legend

Muradnagar Upazila
Soil Texture
Top soil – Muradnagar Upazila

Purba Jatrapur Union

Soil Texture
Top soil – Purba Jatrapur Union

Legend
 SOLARIS - GIS
T. Aman Crop Suitability
Comilla District
Soil Texture
With Irrigation – Suitable
Without Irrigation – Moderately Suitable

Loam
Irrigated Condition
Clay - MH

Legend

Clay Loam - ML

Predominantly 80 - 100
Dominantly 60 – 80
Mainly 40 - 60
Some 0 - 40 Non-Irrigated Condition
 SOLARIS - GIS
Boro Crop Suitability
Comilla District

Legend

Clay - HL

Clay Loam - ML
 SOLARIS - GIS
Land type within a mapping unit are Landtype Classification
summarized by LT class
Jassore
Legend

H Non Flooded
MH Upto 90 cm
ML 90- 180 cm
L 180 –275 cm
VL > 275 cm

Landtype within Map unit

 SOLARIS - GIS
Surface Water Recession Mapping unit based water recession
characteristics
Jassore

Legend

Maximum percentage
 SOLARIS - GIS
Drainage
Jassore district
Mapping unit based drainage
characteristics

Legend

Drainage properties
 SOLARIS - GIS
Moisture Holding Capacity
Jassore district

Moisture available for

each soil units within a
Upazila (High to Low)

Legend

Available Moisture
 Irrigation Water Management

Soil
Map

Net Irrigation
Drought Requirement
Map T. Aman

Jamun- Chilmari- Manda

Loam- Silty Loam
Jamun- Amgaon- Ulipur Jamun- Amgaon
Loam- Clayey Loam - Clay
September 9, 2007 Loam- Clayey Loam
 SOLARIS - GIS

Crop Suitability
Nine soil and land parameters are considered for suitability analysis
Landtype, Relief, Water recession, Drainage, Texture, Consistency,
Moisture, Soil Reaction, Salinity
Suitable, Moderately Suitable, Non-suitable crop

Land Zoning, Nutrient Status, Hazard mapping, Nutrient/ Fertilizer

recommendation

Crop Suitability
 SOLARIS - GIS
Loam Boro Crop Suitability
Jessore District
Clay Loam
Legend

Clay
 SOLARIS - GIS
Nutrient Status/ Recommendation:

Analyze chemical properties of top soil by Soil Group

Classification of Nutrient for Upland and Wetland crops are

considered by Soil Texture (13 Nutrients)

Nutrient recommendation is done by considering Crop type, Yield

range, Nutrient class and type

Fertilizer Recommendation
Nutrient Status
 SOLARIS - GIS
Top Soil Nutrient Status– Jessore Sadar (New laboratory method)

Nitrogen Phosphorous Potassium

September 9, 2007
 SOLARIS - GIS
Nutrient/ Fertilizer Recommendation – Jessore Sadar
 SOLARIS - GIS

Generalized Land Zoning

Factors Agriculture Zone Forest Zone Aquaculture Zone Urban/ Industry

Zone
Landtype Highland to High Land Medium Highland Highland
Lowland to Very Lowland
Drainage Excessively Drain Excessively Poorly Drained to Excessively
to Poorly drained Drained to Very Poorly Drained to
Moderately Well Drained Imperfectly
Drained Drained
Surface water Early to Late Extremely early to Normal to NA Extremely early to
recession Normal Very early

Relief Level NA NA Level

Environmental Seasonal Flood OR Flash Flood OR Seasonal Flood OR Seasonal Flood OR

Hazard Flush flood OR River Bank Erosion Drought OR Null Flash Flood OR
Drought OR OR Land Slide OR (YES) River Bank Erosion
Salinity OR Null Soil Erosion OR OR Land Slide OR
(YES) Null Soil Erosion
(YES) (NO)
 SOLARIS - GIS

Land Zoning
Jessore District

Legend
 Online Fertilizer Recommendation System

• SRDI in collaboration with KATALYST 
developed an web based software named 
Online Fertilizer Recommendation System to 
generate location specific fertilizer 
recommendation for selected crops analyzing 
national nutrient database (using semi‐
detailed soil survey data) developed by SRDI. 
• Nutrient data (semi-detailed soil survey) are entered
into the attribute table of sampling shape file
• Digital Soil and Landform map at the Union level
administrative boundary are used
• Physiography, Land type, Drainage and texture
attributes have been added in the attribute table of
Soil and Land Form map
• Sampling Point map and Soil map have been
intersected to get all necessary information in one file
• Data extracted from the intersected map were
processed to generate Union level, physiography and
land type wise nutrient status database
3. Online Data Entry into Software Database
Log in page of the software
Fertilizer Recommendation User Page
 Training and Motivation
• For proper and smooth functioning of the system SRDI in
collaboration with eGeneration is giving training to the
BanglaLink Call Center Operator, GP-CIC Trainer and Farmer’s
Motivation Team on use of the software

• To let the farmers know the service and develop confidence on the
service Farmers Motivation program is being carried out

• KATALYST select the motivation team/farm and finance the

program

• Motivation Team with the help of DAE field offices and through
SRDI District Offices carryout motivational activities
 Monitoring
• The Software has an inbuilt service delivery 
monitoring system called CRM [Customer 
Relation Management]
• CRM keeps record on 
– Login history
– Fertilizer recommendation service history with name, location, 
contact number of service receiver/farmer, land type, crop 
name, date, quantity of land etc.
Screen Shot of CRM Report
• Our soil database is being used mainly for 
ensuring food security
• Climate change adaptation and mitigation 
perspectives have not been duly addressed so 
far land degradation, salinity intrusion, carbon 
sequestration are concerned
• The formation of GSP‐GSM network could  
further our data base to be used in the most 
debated issue of land use – the environment 
smart agriculture
Thank You

Soil Resource Development Institute (SRDI), Bangladesh