Abstract :
The soil
degradation is increasing at the alarming proportion and needs to be
circumvented to sustain agricultural production in India .
Among various factors responsible for soil degradation, erosion appears to be
the first and deserves governmental and non-governmental agencies to take
immediate steps to minimize the hazard. Currently, several policies are in
place without much impact at the large scale. Maintenance of soil nutrient
status may be possible by adopting recently developed innovative site-specific
nutrient management approaches.
Micronutrient fertilization seems to contribute
one-fifth of the total agricultural output deserves much more significance in
the years to come. Timely identification and ameliorative measures are required
to minimize the loss in crop productivity. Organic movement is gaining momentum
in India and its
applicability is more rationale and reasonable for export oriented agriculture.
Sustainability in food security in relation to organic farming is yet to be
established.
Soil
erosion is the surface removal of productive soil by means of water, and wind
that is the prime environmental costs in agriculture. Soil erosion alone constitutes 86.5% of land
degradation that is considered the most serious hazard (Table 1). Approximately 5334 million tonnes of
productive soil is being carried away by erosion that accounts for 16.4
t/ha/year. The eroded soils leaches out valuable plant nutrients to the tune of
5.0 to 8.4 million tonnes every year which accounts for Rs. 6,100 to 21, 600
crores of estimated loss of money. The removed soil gets accumulated in the
reservoirs and thereby reducing their storage capacity by 1-2% every year.
Erosion has been accelerated in recent times by vegetation removal, over
exploitation of forest cover, excessive grazing and faulty agricultural
practices.
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