eChapters

Soil conservation in hilly areas

Soil erosion is a major problem on hills because of steep slopes. It has been estimated that about 6 million ha of land requires intensive conservation measures in Himalayan and sub-Himalayan regions of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Anthropogenic activities like shifting cultivation, deforestation, over grazing accelerate soil erosion in hilly ecosystem.

Trees are an integral and indispensable constituents of our natural surroundings. The trees keep the environment clean, make the soil healthy and provide food, fibre and shelter to mankind and wild animals. Trees help in stabilizing the soil, a vital natural resource, prevention of soil and water erosion, control run off water in the catchment areas, acts as a shelter belt against wind erosion in arid zone, act as a wind breaker to protect the coastal region during storm and cyclone besides contributing substantially to economic development. The National Commission on Agriculture stress the need for afforestation of about 40 million ha of land presently lying barren because of salinity, sodicity, waterloggings, ravines, coastal sandy areas, stony and gravelly lands, high altitude and slopping lands. Several agencies in various parts of the country are engaged in afforestation of these degraded lands.

Sustainable management of soil and water resources is essential for food, nutritional and environmental security of the country. The total and partial factor productivity of agricultures in India declined over years because of continued degradation of natural resources. The process leading to land degradation are generally triggered by excessive use of land and water resources to meet the growing demand of population for food, fibre and fodder. Various anthropogenic activities leading to accelerated land degradation through salinization, flooding, water logging, erosion of water and nutrients, drought reduced agricultural productivity and nutritional security in the country. These problems can be overcome by optimum utilization of land adopting suitable management practices. For effective land management practices, the soils should be interpreted in forms of their land capability, suitability for irrigation and crop growth. This will not only help the farming community and extension specialists, but also to the administrators and policy makers for using soils for sustainable agricultural production.

Sustainable management of soil resources is essential for food, nutritional and economic security of the country. The continued degradation of soil resources is considered an important factor in lowering the total and partial factor productivity of agriculture in the country. The process like soil erosion, nutrient loss, water logging, desertification, acidification, compaction, crusting, salinization and soil contamination affect food and environmental security in most parts of the country. The future agricultural growth at higher rate cannot be sustained with a deteriorating soil resource base. We need to monitor the quality of soil resources and devise appropriate management strategies for sustainable crop production without deteriorating the environment.

In India, several agencies like National Commission on Agriculture (NCA), Ministry of Agriculture (Soil and Water conservation Division), Society for Promotion of Waste lands Development (SPWD), NBSS&LUP, Nagpur have been constantly inventorizing and characterizing soil resource for drawing up land use and development plans at National and State levels. However, there is a great variance in estimates due to differences in approaches and criteria for assessment. For an example,the total degraded land as estimated by NCA is 148.09 Mha as against, 175.0 Mha by Ministry of Agriculture (Soil and water conservation Division), 129.58 Mha by SPWD and 187.7 Mha by NBSS&LUP, Nagpur.

In soil profile development, we focused on vertical variability in soils - the differences among soil horizons. In this chapter we focused on horizontal variability- how soils differ from place to place across the landscape. Spatial variations in soil properties occurs across distances having geographic meaning for land management-from a few meters to many kilometers. We need to monitor regularly the status of our soil resources employing modern technologies to refine our understanding about them and renew our commitment to their preservation. The applications of Remote Sensing (RS), Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) have greater opportunities to offer in this regard.

Soil health

Soil health is defined as the continued capacity of soil to function as a vital living system, by recognizing that it contains biological elements that are keys to ecosystem function within land use-boundaries. These functions are able to sustain biological activity of soil, maintain the quality of air and water as well as promote plant, animal and human health.

The characteristics of a healthy soil depends on the physical, chemical and biological properties of soils which directly or indirectly influence crop production.

Soil quality and soil health are terms that are discussed in agricultural community. Both these terms encompass a complex, dynamic concept, different to define and hard to measure. The term soil quality and soil health are often used interchangeably in the scientific literature, with scientists in general preferring soil quality and producers preferring soil health. Soil health may be considered as the state of soil at a particular time equivalent to the dynamic properties in short term. In contrast, soil quality may be considered for a particular purpose over a longer time scale, equivalent to static soil quality. In a broader way soil quality may refer to both permanent and static soil properties. (Fig. 11.1).

A static soil property relates to natural characteristic of soil (texture) which are derived from pedogenic processes. These properties cannot be easily amended. The dynamic properties are readily related to management practices. The dynamic component is of most important for the growers because it allows the soil to come to its full potential.

Pollution

Pollution is an undesirable change in physical, chemical or biological characteristics of air, water or land caused by excessive accumulation of pollutants (substances causing pollution).

Kind of pollution

Pollution can be classified in many ways:

In India rice is cultivated under two land situations. In uplands, rice is grown under rainfed conditions and the yield is normally low. In medium or low land conditions rice is grown under wet condition where plenty of rain water or irrigation water is available. Here an intensive tillage is practiced in wet to create a soft puddle condition and then paddy is transplanted. Land submergence is thus an essential condition for successful rice cultivation.

Rice soils are not necessarily soils with water at or near the surface. Many soils have a fairly deep water table, but their surface is kept under submergence maintaining depth of 3-5 cm water. This condition is maintained either by puddling when wet or by having a compacted layer in the sub surface.

A rice soil is characterized by reducing conditions, when it is cropped with rice during wet season and oxidizing conditions during dry season, when the land remained fallow or planted with dry season crops if, irrigation water is available.

Water used for irrigation contain some salts, but quantities and kinds vary greatly depending on the source of water. Since sodic status of soils can be greatly influenced by salts in irrigation waters, successful irrigation practices require the evaluation system to judge irrigation water quality and methods employed. The actual damage done by salt to plants or soils depends on the concentration in soil solution rather than the quality of irrigation water applied. Thus, the use of some water source for irrigation might lead to severe salt problem in soils where drainage is restricted.

Criteria for evaluation of irrigation water

Various criteria considered in evaluating the quality of irrigation water are:

1. Salinity hazard

The most satisfactory method for rating the salt content of irrigation water involves measuring electrical conductivity. Various conductivity limits have been proposed to indicate the degree of salinity problems that might be anticipated with use of irrigation water on crops. There are four classes of salinity hazard such as C₁, C₂, C₃, and C₄.

Saline and alkali soils occur commonly under arid climate due either to the presence of an excess of soluble sodium salts or to the predominance of sodium among the exchangeable bases.

Saline and alkali soils have been classified as follows

1. Saline soils

Saline soils were originally called “White alkali” soils. Russians term them as “Solonchak” soils.

The soils are classified as saline if the electrical conductivity of saturated soil paste is more than 4 dS /m at 25⁰C, exchangeable sodium is less than 15 percent and pH is less than 8.5.

2. Alkali soils

The soils have been classified as alkali if the electrical conductivity of saturated soil paste is less than 4 dS/m, exchangeable sodium is more than 15 percent and pH is 8.5 to 10.0.

Acid soils occupy about 30 percent of the land area of the world out of which 67% acid soils support forests and wood lands and 18 percent are covered by grassland vegetation. Only 4.2 per cent (179 million hectare) of the acid soils across the globe is used for arable crops.

Soil acidity is a major constraint in crop production. The removal of basic cations especially Ca and Mg by leaching and their replacement by acidic cations, H, Al and Fe on exchange complex leads to soil acidity. Soil developed from granite parent material are more acidic than those developed from basalt, shale or lime stone. In acid soils, low pH leading to toxic concentration of H⁺, Al³⁺, Mn²⁺ influences nutrient availability, organic matter decomposition and microbial activity.

Efficient soil amelioration and nutrient management practices are necessary for crops susceptible to soil acidity.

Soil erosion refers to detachment and transport of soil and soil particles from one place to other by the action of water, wind or gravity. Soil erosion consists of (i) detachment of soil particles from surface (ii) their transport from one place to other and (iii) deposition in another place.

Soil erosion are of two types: Natural erosion and accelerated erosion. The natural or geological erosion is steady, nondestructive and slow process of nature. On the contrary the accelerated erosion caused due to human activities like cutting of forest, intensive cropping, construction of roads and building is very rapid and destructive. Surface one inch of soil which is formed in thousand years can be lost within one year due to accelerated erosion.

In India, out of total 175 million hectares of degraded land, soil erosion due to water and wind accounts for 150 million hectare. Soil erosion due to shifting cultivation, salinity, alkalinity, water logging and shifting of water courses account for 25 million hectare.

Average soil loss from various land surfaces in India has been estimated to be 5334 million tonnes per year out of which 29 percent is permanently lost to sea, 10 percent is deposited in reservoirs and 61 percent is transported from one place to other. The plant nutrients lost through 5334 million tonnes of eroded soils was estimated to be 8.4 million tonnes which includes 2.5 million tonnes of N, 3.3 million tonnes of P and 2.6 million tonnes of K.

Siltation of reservoirs through water erosion is a major concern in India. This accelerated silting has considerably reduced the estimated life span of major reservoirs. The rate of siltation depends on the catchment area, soil erodability, topography and rainfall pattern. Larger the catchment area, smaller is the siltation load in the reservoirs because, the coarse fraction of eroded particles may be settle down in the stream valley before the water enters into the reservoir.

Iron Toxic Soils

Lowland rice is being cultivated on approximately 128 million hectares of either irrigated or rainfed land out of which 100 million hectares suffer due to nutrient deficiency or toxicities. Among the toxicities, iron toxicity is well recognized as a nutritional disorder in low land rice production. Iron toxicity is a syndrome of disorder associated with high concentration of Fe²⁺ in soil solution. A wide range of soil types show iron toxicity problem including acid sulphate soils, acid clay soils, peat soil and valley bottom soil. During monsoon rains in the wet season, soluble iron (Fe²⁺) migrate to the surface and its iron content increases to subtoxic or toxic levels.

In rolling topography and with heavy monsoon downpour there is considerable lateral flow of iron containing water from the adjacent uplands to mid – and low lands. This increases the iron content to toxic levels. Poorly drained sandy soils in valleys receiving interflow water from adjacent uplands with laterite horizon (Plinthudults) showed iron toxicity in Srilanka and Kerala and Odisha in India. These soil groups come under the taxonomic orders Alfisols, Ultisols and Oxisols occurring in association with Entisols and Inceptisols. The iron concentration (Fe²⁺) in soil solution that affect low land rice yield ranges from 10 to > 2000 mg L^-1 Iron toxicity induced yield reduction which is associated with poor nutrients . status (deficiency of P, K and Zn) and H₂S toxicities.

Calcareous soils

In arid regions, calcareous soils are developed from limestone or marl parent materials. The content of calcium and magnesium carbonate may be as high as 60 to 70 per cent of the total soil mass. In calcareous soil lime content may vary from a small amount in some places in the profile to appreciable amounts throughout the profile.

Calcium carbonate coatings occur in sand, silt and clay size fractions of calcareous soils. In sub soil, large amounts of lime forms hardpan under high water tables.

In general, pH of the soil increases to alkaline pH with increasing the proportion of water to soil ratio. This may happen in part from a reduction of CO₂ pressure. The dilution of salts in soil solution also permits greater hydrolysis of calcium clay. The dilution of calcium carbonate with production of hydroxyl ions may lead to higher pH as:

Crusting soils

What is soil crusting?

Soil crusting refers to formation of a compact thin layer having high bulk density and high penetration resistance at the soil surface when dries after dispersion of fine particles and clogging of pores due to beating action of rain drop and slaking of irrigation water.

In arid and semiarid regions, crust formation occurs due to the destruction of soil aggregates. Crust formation occurs in all types of soils except sand. It is characterized by high bulk density, low non capillary pores, low hydraulic conductivity and aeration and high penetration resistance.

I. Definition of wasteland

Wasteland include degraded forest, overgrazed pastures, drought- struck pastures, eroded valley, hill slopes, water logged marshy lands, barren lands etc.

Different authors have defined wastelands as:

Land which is lying unproductive or which is not being utilized to its potential.

Land which is incapable of producing material or services of value (American Society of Soil science).

Land which has been abandoned and for which there is no further use (Mine spoils).

Land which produces less than 20% of economic potential. e) Land where no greenery can be sustained.

Land which is neither under forest cover or agricultural cover or assigned for specific purposes such as National park or National hydro power projects.

The Technical Task Group Report of the National Wasteland Board defines the wasteland due to different constraints.

7.1 Introduction

Agriculture production and farm incomes in India are frequently affected by natural disasters such as droughts, floods, cyclones, storms, landslides and earthquakes. Susceptibility of agriculture to these disasters is compounded by the outbreak of epidemics and man-made disasters such as fire, sale of spurious seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, price crashes etc. All these events severely affect farmers through loss in production and farm income, and they are beyond the control of the farmers. With the growing commercialization of agriculture, the magnitude of loss due to unfavorable eventualities is increasing. The question is how to protect farmers by minimizing such losses. For a section of farming community, the minimum support prices for certain crops provide a measure of income stability. But most of the crops and in most of the states MSP is not implemented. In recent times, mechanisms like contract farming and future s trading have been established which are expected to provide some insurance against price fluctuations directly or indirectly. But, agricultural insurance is considered an important mechanism to effectively address the risk to output and income resulting from various natural and manmade events. Agricultural Insurance is a means of protecting the agriculturist against financial losses due to uncertainties that may arise agricultural losses arising from named or all unforeseen perils beyond their control (AIC, 2008). Unfortunately, agricultural insurance in the country has not made much headway even though the need to protect Indian farmers from agriculture variability has been a continuing concern of agriculture policy. According to the National Agriculture Policy 2000, "Despite technological and economic advancements, the condition of farmers continues to be unstable due to natural calamities and price fluctuations". In some extreme cases, these unfavorable events become one of the factors leading to farmers suicides which are now assuming serious proportions.Agricultural insurance is one method by which farmers can stabilize farm income and investment and guard against disastrous effect of losses due to natural hazards or low market prices. Crop insurance not only stabilizes the farm income but also helps the farmers to initiate production activity after a bad agricultural year. It cushions the shock of crop losses by providing farmers with a minimum amount of protection. It spreads the crop losses over space and time and helps farmers make more investments in agriculture. It forms an important component of safety-net programmes as is being experienced in many developed countries like USA and Canada as well as in the European Union. However, one need to keep in mind that crop insurance should be part of overall risk management strategy. Insurance comes towards the end of risk management process. Insurance is redistribution of cost of losses of few among many, and cannot prevent economic loss. There are two major categories of agricultural insurance

6.1 Introduction

The analysis of issues in agricultural credit in India reveals that the credit delivery to the agriculture sector continues to be inadequate. It appears that the banking system is still hesitant on various grounds to purvey credit to small and marginal farmers. The situation calls for concerted efforts to augment the flow of credit to agriculture, alongside exploring new innovations in product design and methods of delivery, through better use of technology and related processes. Facilitating credit through processors, input dealers, NGOs, etc., that are vertically integrated with the farmers, including through contract farming, for providing them critical inputs or processing their produce, could increase the credit flow to agriculture significantly.Agriculture plays a crucial role in the development of the Indian economy. It accounts for about 19 per cent of GDP and about two- thirds of the population is dependent on the sector. The importance of farm credit as a critical input to agriculture is reinforced by the unique role of Indian agriculture in the macroeconomic framework and its role in poverty alleviation. Recognising the importance of agriculture sector in India's development, the Government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have played a vital role in creating a broad-based institutional framework for catering to the increasing credit requirements of the sector. Agricultural policies in India have been reviewed from time to time to maintain pace with the changing requirements of the agriculture sector, which forms an important segment of the priority sector lending of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) and target of 18 per cent of net bank credit has been stipulated for the sector. The Approach Paper to the Eleventh Five Year Plan has set a target of 4 per cent for the agriculture sector within the overall GDP growth target of 9 per cent. In this context, the need for affordable, sufficient and timely supply of institutional credit to agriculture has assumed critical importance.

5.1 Introduction

India ranks 10th in the world in pesticide consumption as its total consumption amounts to about 500 million tonnes. India is presently the largest manufacturer of basic pesticides among the South Asian and African countries, with the exception of Japan. The Indian pesticides market is the 12th largest in the world with a value of US $ 0.6 bn, which is 1.6% of the global market pie. India is one of the most dynamic generic pesticide industries in the world, having a total installed capacity of technical grade pesticides consisting of large and medium scale and 400 pesticide formulators (of all sectors) spread all over the country for use in agriculture, public health, household and plant protection. Overall, it can be said that there is a bright future for agro-chemical companies in India in the post-patent era. This paper focuses on the opportunities arising for companies dealing in pesticides because of the agrarian nature of the Indian economy. Besides, it presents a conceptual framework of the situation prevailing in the marketing of pesticides in India with special reference to Punjab.February 13,2009 (FPRC) — Indian Pesticides Industry - Vital for ensuring food security. Agriculture is the lynchpin of the Indian economy. Ensuring food security for more than 1 bn Indian population with diminishing cultivable land resource is a herculean task. This necessitates use of high yielding variety of seeds, balance use of fertilisers, judicious use of quality pesticides along with education to farmers and the use of modern farming techniques. It is estimated that India approximately loses 18% of the crop yield valued at Rs.900 bn due to pest attack each year. The use of pesticides help to reduce the crop losses, provide economic benefits to farmers, reduce soil erosion and help in ensuring food safety & security for the nation. The Indian pesticide industry with 85,000 MT of production during FY 07 is ranked second in Asia (behind China) and twelfth globally. In value terms, the size of the Indian pesticide industry was estimated at Rs.74 bn for 2007, including exports of Rs.29 bn.Globally, due to consolidation in the industry, the top five global MNCs control almost 78% of the market. In India, the industry is very fragmented with about 30-40 large manufacturers and about 400 formulators.The per hectare consumption of pesticide is low in India at 381 grams when compared to the world average of 500 grams. Low consumption can be attributed to fragmented land holdings, low level of irrigation, dependence on monsoons, low awareness among farmers about the benefits of usage of pesticides etc. India, being a tropical country, the consumption pattern is also more skewed towards insecticides which accounted for 64% of the total pesticide consumption in FY 07.

4.1 Introduction

Issues of productivity growth and patterns of substitution in the fertilizer sector as well as in other energy intensive industries in India have been discussed from various perspectives. Historical estimates vary from indicating an improvement to a decline in the sector's productivity. The variation depends mainly on the time period considered, the source of data, the type of indices and econometric specifications used for reporting productivity growth. Regarding patterns of substitution most analyses focus on inter fuel substitution possibilities in the context of rising energy demand. Not much research has been conducted on patterns of substitution among the primary and secondary input factors: Capital, labour, energy and materials. However, analyzing the use and substitution possibilities of these factors as well as identifying the main drivers of productivity growth among these and other factors is of special importance for understanding technological and overall development of an industry.In this paper we contribute to the discussion on productivity growth and the role of technological change. We introduce the fertilizer industry in more detail taking into account industry specific aspects such as structural composition, production, technologies, energy consumption within processes, sector specific policies etc. This following we derive both statistical and econometric estimates of productivity growth for the fertilizer sector over time. For the statistical analysis we develop the Kendrick and Solow indices while for the econometric analysis a translog cost function approach using both cross-state and national thime series data is employed. The results are then interpreted within a broader context of structural and policy changes in the sector as well as other sector specific aspects.

3.1 Introduction

The green revolution has no doubt provided great increase in the production of food crops, but has led to a sizeable increase in energy use. With the cost of energy raising constantly and shortage faced in developing countries, the energy conservation given a special importance. It has been estimated that potential for conservation of commercial energy is around 20% in transport, 25% in industrial and 30 percent in agriculture. In a country like India where about 70% of people depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Agriculture being the primary sector has got its importance. Mechanisation of agriculture is inevitable for farm productivity. Mechanization of agriculture has two forms job requiring traction work, mobile mechanization need the use of machines for such jobs as pulling and drawing efforts e.g. plowing and tillage operations like harrowing, leveling, rolling, seeding, harvesting and hauling .