Cent Of Total Geographical Area Research Articles

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

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.

Monitoring spatio-temporal dynamics of urban and peri-urban landscape using remote sensing and GIS – A case study from Central India

In the study, an attempt has been made to map and monitor spatio-temporal dynamics of urban and peri-urban landscape of Nagpur city, Maharashtra, India using urban plan maps (1936), topographical sheets (1976), temporal Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper data for the years 1991 and 2010. Object Based Image Analysis (OBIA) technique has been followed to classify the temporal remote sensing data using eCognition software (Ver 9.8) in conjunction with topographic sheets in Geographic Information System (GIS). The analysis shows that urban area has increased from 2272 ha in 1936 to 17344 ha in 2010, this could be attributed to natural increase in urban population and inward migration from villages to city for better education, employment, recreation and living standards. During the urbanization process, about 2806 ha of land has been converted predominantly from double cropped area and degraded scrublands to housing or industrial needs. Interestingly area under water bodies slightly increased from 0.9 to 1.1 per cent of total geographical area (TGA) during the same period. The analysis of urban sprawl shows that eastern, southern and southwestern part of Nagpur city witnessed significant growth of urban sprawl. The generated spatio-temporal information on urban sprawl could be effectively used to monitor the land use/land cover changes and maintain sustainable urban environment of the Nagpur city. The study demonstrates the potential of temporal satellite data and GIS techniques in analysis of spatio-temporal dynamics of urban and peri-urban landscape for management of land resources on sustainable basis.

Income and employment generation under existing farming systems in tribal dominated Banswara district of Southern Rajasthan

Rajasthan is the largest state of India constituting 10.4 per cent of total geographical area and 5.67 per cent of total population of India. The present investigation was under taken to work out the income and employment under existing farming systems in tribal dominant Banswara district of Southern Rajasthan during 2012–13. A sample of 60 households consisting of 30 each under rainfed and irrigated situation was selected for the study. Four farming systems were existed in both the rainfed and irrigated situations of Banswara district viz. FS-I: Crop+ Vegetables (C+V), FS-II: Crop + Dairy (C+D), FS-III: Crop + Dairy +Goat (C+D+G) and FS-IV: Crop + Goat +Poultry +Orchard (C+G +Po+O). The total cost in rainfed farming system was the lowest in FS-I ( 59707.15) and the highest in FS-III ( 166716.75). The total costs in irrigated farming system were the lowest in FS-I ( 232289.97) and highest in FS-III ( 292409.27). On the basis of net return per household, the most profitable farming system adopted under the rainfed situation was FS-III (Crop+Goat+Dairy) with 57600.95 per farm while on the basis of returns per rupee investment; it was FS-IV (Crop+Goat+Poultry) i.e. 1.57. While under irrigated situation, FS-I (Crop+Vegetable) was the most profitable farming system on net return basis ( 147287) and returns per rupee investment i.e. 1.63. On per farm basis employment generated in rainfed and irrigated conditions were found maximum in FS-II (197.76 man days) and FS-IV (626.60 man days) in the district, respectively. In irrigated condition the employment generation was more in the district as crop, poultry and orchard activities were included in FS-IV which utilized more of family labour resulted to maximum employment.

Effectct of Changes in Land Use on Income and Expenditure Pattern of the Selected Households in North and South Direction of Raipur Town

Agriculture forms the backbone of the Indian economy and despite concerted industrialization in the last five decades; agriculture occupies a pride of place. As the largest private enterprise in India, agriculture contributes, nearly one fourth of the national G.D.P, sustains livelihood of about two thirds of population and is the backbone of agro-based industries. It is paradoxical situation that on the one hand more production is required from the scares soil resources for meeting the demand of everexpanding population, while on the other, cultivable areas are being shifted towards non-agricultural uses. To compute the compound growth rate of land use pattern, trend analysis was done. The double cropped area of Chhattisgarh increased from 664111 hectares in (2000-01) to 972729 hectares in (2009-10). Registering the significant growth rate of about 4.38 per cent at the 5 per cent level of probability. To know the dynamics of land transaction data were collected for the year 2005-06 before and 2009-10 present, from North and South direction at 10, 20 and 30 kilometres away from the Raipur town. The study has revealed that major shifts of land from the Agricultural to nonAgricultural uses. The overall income from nonfarm and offfarm were increased in terms of the total income of households. However the share of farm income was decreased in terms of overall income of the households at present, Major consequences pertaining to land sale has to be found gambling and addiction of alcoholisms (63.33), loan repayments (21.67), got higher price of land (38.33), distress sale (15.00) per cent. The study suggested that there are great scope for further extension of area of land under cultivation, as the existence of 17.29 per cent of total geographical area is under fallow and cultivable wasteland this can be brought under cultivation in Raipur and Durg district of Chhattisgarh. It is also suggested that government and farmers agricultural land should not be transferred in to the nonAgricultural uses.

APPRAISAL OF SOIL EROSION RISK IN THE EASTERN HIMALAYAN REGION OF INDIA FOR SOIL CONSERVATION PLANNING

ABSTRACTManagement practices to minimise soil erosion can be effectively carried out if the magnitude and the spatial distribution of soil erosion risk areas are known. Prioritisation of soil erosion risk areas is a challenging task, especially in the developing countries because of non‐availability of relevant data and analytical tools for such an assessment. As a result, it becomes difficult to establish appropriate soil conservation measures on the risk‐prone areas to reduce soil loss and ensure development of a sustainable management of soil resources. Such a database can be better generated and analysed in a geographical information system (GIS) environment to delineate and prioritise the soil erosion risk areas at state or regional level. Therefore, a methodology was developed to assess the soil erosion risks in eastern Himalayan region by integrating spatial data on prevailing erosion rates and soil loss tolerance limits in GIS environment. By comparing the potential erosion rates with permissible rates, we observed that about 58·94 per cent of total geographical area (TGA) of the region requires different degrees of erosion management and 28·38 per cent of TGA falls under no treatment category because of higher values of permissible erosion limits. It can be successfully applied to assess and prioritise soil erosion risks in any region or country and identify best management practices to bring the erosion losses within the permissible limits. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.