Theory:  Inorganic components of soils: rocks and minerals, primary minerals, secondary minerals, clay minerals (1:1 and 2:1); weathering of rocks and minerals: types of weathering, types of parent materials; soil formation and profile development: processes and factors of profile development; nomenclature and identification of soil horizons: master and sub-horizons and layers, transitional and combination horizons, suffix symbols, soil catena concept.  Soil properties used in soil characterization; surface and subsurface diagnostic horizons and other diagnostic properties; soil classification: basic principles and purposes of soil classification, soil as a population, pedon and polypedon concepts, categories and classes, single and multiple category systems, technical and natural (taxonomic) classification systems.  Essence of soil classification, types of soil classification (natural and technical), basic characteristics of the USDA soil orders and their FAO (WRB) equivalents; profile characteristics of major soil orders in Ghana.

Practicals: (13 weeks): Identification of minerals and rocks; Soil profile description: soil depth, boundary between horizons, texture by feel, soil colour, consistence, structure.