Soil health and land degradation related problems and remedial measures with special reference to central and peninsular India

Abstract

Land degradation in black soil regions of India (occurring between 8045’ and 2600’ N latitude and 6600’ and 83045’ E longitude spread over an area of 76.4m ha constituting almost 22.2 per cent of total geographical area of India) is the continuous process for some inherent soil physicochemical and hydrological properties coupled with poor management. The soils in these regions occur on flat to varying degree of undulating topography and therefore water erosion accompanied by severe losses of essential plant nutrients are the serious problems even on flat topography. This emphasizes the need for effective conservation of land and water resources and their efficient utilization for enhancing crop productivity on sustainable basis. Appropriate cost effective conservation measures for land and water have been found effective in improving the land and water resources and thereby productivity of crops and live-stocks. Integrated watershed management is now considered as the best approach for sustainable protection, preservation and efficient utilization of all the natural resources particularly land and water and socio-economic resources. Present paper reviews land degradation status and various kinds of land uses and presents the technological options for managing them so that productivity of arable crops may be improved on sustainable basis.