Introduction

Abstract

Agriculture, the cultivation of food and goods through farming, began in Nepal thousands of years (yr) ago with bench terraces in the hillslopes, one of the most unique cropping landscapes in the world. Manipulation of soil in these bench terraces exhibits the soil reference group ‘Anthrosols’ as per world soil reference base, or ‘Anthropic epipedon’as per the United States Department of Agriculture soil classifications. However, active weathering is still prevalent in the soils of Nepal and generally referred to as ‘young soil’. That is why the soils of Nepal lack a large area of old-aged soils such as ‘Oxisols ,’ ‘Histosols,’ and ‘Vertisols .’ Climate and geology affect the formation of soil and different types of soils can be found in different climate and geological settings (Chaps. 3 and 4). Newly developed and fragile soil including ‘Entisols’’ and ‘Inceptisols’’ with ‘colluvial’ or ‘alluvial’ materials covered more than 50% of the total soil area in Nepal (Chaps. 6 and 7). These soils are abundantly distributed in Tarai (also spelled as Terai), Siwaliks, and the middle-Mountains (Chaps. 4 and 5) regions of Nepal. Due to their fragile nature, they are easily eroded by water, and require a proper land management strategy (Chap. 10). For proper land management, it is necessary to understand the intrinsic soil properties and inherent fertility of the soil (Chaps. 8 and 9). Additionally, we valued soil as it is worthy to human beings (Chapter 11). In this book, we delve into the wide array of young Nepalese soils that are of particular interest to the global academic fraternity. For these reasons, we have organized this book into 12 chapters.