Soil museum and documentation centre was established at the Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, College of Agriculture, Vellayani during 1990-91 under the University Soil Reference and Databases project as part of a collaborative project with International Soil Reference and Information Centre(ISRIC), Wageningen, The Netherlands .The objective of the museum was to serve as a centre for documentation and reference about the soils of Kerala, to collect soil monoliths from the major agro-ecological zones of Kerala and to have an exposition of them in the soil museum and to provide information on soil for the use of students, farmers, scientists and planners. Twelve reference soils from major land resource areas representing different agro-ecological zones of the state have been collected and their monoliths are exhibited in the museum. Soil briefs with detailed information on soil series, classification, landscape, climate, crops cultivated, characterization and land evaluation have been prepared and exhibited to cater the requirements of different user groups like students, farmers, scientists , environmentalists, planners and general public. An audio visual documentary on reference soils of Kerala is available for providing information to visitors. The soil museum also has a collection of important rock and mineral specimens.
