| Summary: | Tropical Alfisols, Ultisols, and Oxisols are soils with predominantly low activity clays. Together these soil orders cover a vast part of the subhumid and humid tropics. Alfisols and Ultisols have less stable structures than Oxisols. Alfisols and Ultisols have low available water holding capacity, are easily compacted, and, in spite of low soil erodibility, may suffer accelerated soil erosion under the high erosivity of the climate of the humid tropics.
Soil physical properties are highly variable. Shallow-rooted seasonal crops suffer from periodic drought stress even i' regions of high annual rainfall.
If soil erosion is not controlled and physical properties are not maintained at levels favorable to crop production, other inputs are easily wasted. Promising
soil management techniques include no-till and mulch farming, agro-forestry, frequent use of leguminous cover crops in the rotation, and mixed cropping systems.
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