Integrated Watershed Management Programme: An ultimate tool for soil conservation
Author(s):
Raghu. C
Keywords:
Population growth, Soil erosion, Agricultural productivity, Soil conservation.
Abstract
Population in India is growing at the rate of about 1.92 percent per annum. According to 2001 census, the population was around 100 crores and it gradually increased to 121 crores by 2011. As per the recent estimates, India’s population is more than 130 crores and growing at the rate of 1.64% per annum. This being the rate, the days are not very far, where, India will be overtaking China’s population, which is around 141 cores. Every newly born child needs to be fed. If this is the case, to meet the growing demand for food the country needs to plan to feed the increasing population by increasing the production of food grains to that level. However, the food production is increasing at a mere rate of 0.2 percent, which is not on par with the growth rate of the population in the country. To meet this demand, the best technological approaches have been adapted in terms of HYV seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, machines etc. Since agriculture sector is prone to diminishing returns to scale, further improvement in technology will not help in increasing the productivity levels. Thus, there is a need to explore, other possibilities of increasing the agricultural production and productivity. In this process, increase in cropping intensity, by utilizing the existing water resources is an important area to be explored. But extensive use of arable land has resulted in drastic soil erosion. This gets reflected in reduced agricultural productivity. Soil erosion is a widespread environmental problem that threatens human beings in the developing countries. Each year, 75 billion tons of soil is removed in the globe due to erosion with most of it from agricultural land. An average rate of soil erosion in Asia is more than 138 tonnes (ha. year). Proper environmental planning at different levels has been called for by watershed managers during the last 17 years with the introduction of KAWAD Project (2001) to integrate natural resources and human needs continually and effectively. Therefore soil conservation is the need of the hour and a well structured integrated watershed management programmes can play a vital role in soil conservation.
Article Details
Unique Paper ID: 167558

Publication Volume & Issue: Volume 5, Issue 8

Page(s): 297 - 303
Article Preview & Download


Share This Article

Join our RMS



Conference Alert

NCSEM 2024

National Conference on Sustainable Engineering and Management - 2024

Last Date: 15th March 2024

Latest Publication

Call For Paper

Volume 11 Issue 1

Last Date for paper submitting for Latest Issue is 25 June 2024

About Us

IJIRT.org enables door in research by providing high quality research articles in open access market.

Send us any query related to your research on [email protected]

Social Media

Google Verified Reviews

Contact Details

Telephone:6351679790
Email: [email protected]
Website: ijirt.org

Policies

Important Links

Browse Rsearch papers