Introduction and Importance of Soil Conservation

 Soil and water are two important natural resources and the basic needs for agricultural production. During the last century, it has been observed that the pressure of increasing population has led to the degradation of these natural resources. In other words, an increase in agricultural production to feed the increasing population is only possible if there sufficient fertile land and water are available for farming. In India, out of 329 million hectares of geographical area, 68 million hectares are critically degraded while 107 million hectares are severely eroded. That's why soil and water should be given first priority from the conservation point of view and appropriate methods should be used to ensure their sustainability and future availability.

Soil and water are critical natural resources that must be kept in harmony with the environment for agroecosystems to be sustainable.

 As opposed to the productive process of soil cultivation, "soil conservation" is a reproductive process. It is an activity applied by the individual or the community in order to maintain the soil fertility of a given area for the sustainable use of the soil resource for future generations.

Conservation agriculture is a resource-saving agricultural production system that aims to achieve production intensification and high yields while enhancing the natural resource base through compliance with three interrelated principles, along with other good production practices of plant nutrition and pest management.

Conservation agriculture is a management system that maintains a soil cover through surface retention of crop residues with no-till/zero and reduced tillage.

Importance of Soil Conservation

In India, out of the total geographical area of 329 M-ha, an area of about 150 M-ha is subjected to either water or wind erosion. A net area of about 140 M-ha is cropped at present. An area of 40 M-ha is considered to be flood-prone. The area lost through ravines and gullies is estimated to be about 4 M-ha. As a whole, it is estimated that about 175 M-ha i.e., 53.3% of the total geographical area of the country is subjected to various soil and land degradation problems like saline-alkali soils, waterlogged areas, ravine, and gullied lands, area under shifting cultivation, and desertification. By the year 2100 A.D, the projected population of the country is expected to be two billion, whereas the food grain production is almost stagnant at 211 million tons for the last 5 years. The per capita cropped area is shrinking every day; in the year 1950, it was 0.33 ha/capita, 0.2 ha in 1980 and it was 0.15 ha by 2000. This clearly shows that the limited land resource has to be managed very carefully by adopting total conservation measures for the survival of the huge population. A few suggestions to conserve soil and water resources in the Indian context are discussed below.

To prevent erosion of bare soil, it is important to maintain a vegetation cover, especially in the most vulnerable areas e.g. those with steep slopes, in a dry season, or periods of very heavy rainfall. For this purpose, only partial harvesting forests (e.g. alternate trees) and use of seasonally dry or wet areas for pasture rather than arable agricultural land should be permitted.

Where intensive cultivation takes place, farmers should follow crop rotation in order to prevent the soil from becoming exhausted of organic matters and other soil-building agents. Where soils are plowed in vulnerable areas, contour plowing (i.e. round the hillside rather than down the hillside) should be used. Careful management of irrigation, to prevent the application of too much or too little water will be helpful to reduce the problem of soil salinity development. Livestock grazing must be carefully managed to prevent overgrazing.

Construction of highways and urbanization should be restricted to areas of lower agricultural potential. With extractive industries, a pledge must be secured to restore the land to its former condition before permission for quarries or mines is granted.

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