SCSI News Jan-March 2014 (1)

From The President's Desk

THE population of our

country is expected to

touch 1.4 billion by 2025

and 1.6 billion by 2050

which is around 33%

increase in population of

the country but on the

contrary per capita surface

water availability and per

capita utilizable surface

water will decline by about

30% by 2050 as compared to present availability of surface water. Presently,

about 60% of the cropped area in the country is rainfed whereas the yield

levels are highly prone to variety of risks.

Under this situation, the diversification of land use systems with

Agroforestry is a necessary strategy for providing variety of products for

fulfilling the need of the people, insurance against risks caused by weather

aberrations, controlling erosion hazards and ensuring sustainable production

on a long-term basis. Agroforestry is the area contributes substantially to

meet the projected needs of the population such as an increase by 1.5 times

in fodder, two times in foodgrains and fuel wood and three times in timber

production. Further, to meet the energy requirement from bio-diesel and to

achieve 20% blending in diesel, a three fold increase in production of biodiesel

will be required. There is a need to promote agroforestry systematically to

meet the requirement of commodities such as timber (85%) biofuel (80%)

and fuelwood (49%) and to some extent for fruits (16%), fodder (10%) and

food grains (9%) in the long run. Hence, there is a need of hour is to improve

smallholder production systems and markets by adopting the following

themes:

• Enhancing productivity and sustainability of smallholder Agroforestry

systems including food security and nutritional benefits, through better

management of production systems.

• Increasing income generation and market integration for smallholders

through utilizations of Agroforestry options.

• Strengthening policies and institutions to enhance social assets and secure

and sustain rights to trees and land.

• To find out simple ways to provide financial assistance to small and

marginal farmers adopting Agroforestry and to reward them suitably

for protecting our future generations from the extremes of climate and

provide a clean environment.

S O I L C O N S E R V A T I O N S O C I E T Y O F I N D I A

In this issue

■ From the President’s Desk 1

■ Conservation in brief 2

■■■■■ Technological interventions for 2coastal soil salinity management

■■■■■ Environmental degradation – 3some thoughts

■■■■■ Consultation meeting on 3soil-health assessment

■■■■■ Conservation agriculture-a step 4to reduce carbon footprint

■■■■■ Soil & water conservation 5foundation of perpetualfood security

■■■■■ Sustainable agriculture and 6food security

■■■■■ Integrated watershed 7management training programme

■■■■■ International Conference 8on Natural ResourceManagement for FoodSecurity & Rural Livelihood(NRMFRC)

■■■■■ Editorial Board 8

SCSI NEWS • JANUARY-MARCH 20142

SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATIONTODAY

Conservation in briefJ.S. BALI

IN the context of Indian field realities

where 80 per cent of farming

done by small and marginal farmers)

some of the more important Soil and

Water Conservation Practices are

recommended as:

•Bench Terracing or Land Levelling

of all sloping cultivated land. Build up

soil fertility after fresh Bench Terracing/Land Levelling

by Green Manuring . (Government may band up and

down the slope cultivation of hill lands, and must

subsidize Bench Terracing/Land Levelling for all

farmers, especially those with less than 4 ha of land

holding).

• Adopt Conservation Agronomy Practices, especially

Green Manuring and mixed use of farm yard manures

and fertilisers, along with other usual practices.

• Horticulture /Afforestation/Grassland Development

of Village Common Lands, by the Panchayats. Choose

the species in consultation with the local villagers so

that the planted vegetation may be of use for them

(especially to meet fodder and fuel wood needs). This

would be a challenging task.

• Too many cattle and other livestock and consequent

uncontrolled grazing, need to be “managed”. (A

hitherto neglected task).

• Arrange a Farm Inputs and Agricultural Advisory

Source for each of the 6 lakh villages of India. (Follow

the tried successful models).

• Arrange for Irrigation. (“A farmer without water is a

barber without his razer”, says the well-known

Agricultural Scientist, D. R. Bhumbla ). Build lakhs of

Ponds, micro, small and medium sizes, dug-outs or

on natural sites. Seal the bottom and the sides to

retain water. Provide controlled outlets. Adopt

intensive conservation practices in the pond

catchment).

• Adopt Water Management Practices in “Command

Areas”.

• Improve forest condition ( let us see at least 60 per

cent canopy cover) on the 70 million hectares of land

with the Government Forest Departments—at

present it much less, and planted up with species

which the nearby villagers desire)

• “Farming in India has become profitless”, says the

world-famous agricultural scientist, Prof. M.S.

Swaminathan. Farming is a private “enterprise”. Who

will adopt the above practices when the whole farming

venture is profitless (with some exceptions).

• 800 million people out of India’s 1210 million, live in

the villages and depend directly or indirectly on

agriculture for livelihood. What proportion of budget

goes to the uplift of the villages? Vastly less than the

proportional area or population!

COASTAL saline soils occur along

the 6100 km long coastline of

India. Salinity problems in coastal

areas occurred during the process of

their formation under marine

influences and subsequent periodical

inundation with tidal water, and in

case of low lands having proximity to

the sea, due to high watertable with high concentration

of salts in it. The coastal soils exhibit a great deal of diversity

in terms of climate, physiography and physical

characteristics as well as in terms of rich stock of flora and

fauna. These soils comprise deltas, lacustrine fringes,

lagoons, coastal marshes and narrow coastal plains or

terraces along the creeks. About 3.1 million hectares of

coastal soils are widely distributed in the coastal belt of

West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Pondicherry, Tamil

Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa and

Andamans and Nicobar Islands. The coastal soils may be

either saline or acid sulphate in nature. The saline soils

are dominant with NaCl and Na2SO

4 with abundance of

soluble cations in the order of Na>Mg>Ca>K and Chloride

as the predominant anion. The major problems

encountered in these areas are:

• These lands are subjected to the influence of tidal

waves and periodical inundation by tidal water;

• Shallow water table enriched with salt contributes

to increase in soil salinity during winter and summer

months;

• Heavy rainfall resulting in excess water during Kharif

season;

• Poor surface and subsurface drainage conditions;

• Lack of good quality irrigation water and acute salinity

during Rabi season;

Technological interventions for coastal soil salinity management

SANJAY ARORA

Contd. on page 8...

SCSI NEWS • JANUARY-MARCH 2014 3


Environmental degradation – some thoughts

THE state of environment and problems of degradation

of the earth’s natural resources are matter of concern

to all human being and more particularly to persons

associated with natural resource management (NRM). The

future of mankind will depend on whether and to what

extent we can conserve the Earth as our habitat.

Environment degradation of the global level has non

assumed proportion that threatens the foundation of

human life and development. Environmental degradation

leave human footprint not only on habitat but also

landscape ecosystem on which survival of mankind depend

on food, fodder, fibre etc. Here ecosystem should be

considered as resource base for any planning.

An ecosystem is a

complex and dynamic

in nature comprising

biotic and abiotic

component. In spatial

term, ecosystem may

be classified as

ecoregions, ecotopes,

catchment areas or

landscape. However, large scale human intervention in

the environment is now threatening the organism we call

earth. The influence of the man can be seen most

profoundly in spatial and temporal pattern of land use.

Over the course of the time, agricultural development,

ecosystems with conditions favourable to cultivation have

been approximated for agricultural use. Since most of the

ecosystem were once forest, their soils are fertile enough

to produce crops without rapid degradation. Even today

people pushing upward and started cultivation on marginal

land (under forest). During the course of development and/

or to feed the burgeoning population, humans started using

external energy (inputs) for maximum harvest from

shrinking resources base causing wide-spread ecological

hazards for atmosphere (greenhouse gases, ozone

depletion etc.), physical, chemical and biological

degradation of soils, water pollution and biological

diversity. Global ecological threat have made it abundantly

clear that the environment crisis is not an isolated

phenomenon, but that affect all areas and levels of society.

The Indian situation is not very safe owing to

large scale degradation of land (nearly 120 million hectare

of TGA). Over the past 50 to 60 years, the focus of

agricultural development and research has mainly been

on maximizing the yield to feed the growing population of

the country.

Although we are proud of green revolution for being

self-sufficient on food front but it is no more sustainable

owing to multifaceted problems (sickness) in soil

environment as this sector also has a major influence on

terrestrial ecosystem services, such as water and carbon

sequestration.

Further the drop in farm induces and using cost of

agricultural inputs has made farming increasingly

unsupportable. For quite some time, it has been observed

that numerous challenges are linked with agricultural

sector because of food and energy crises coupled with

climate change and degradation of natural resources. The

lives of small farmers, fishers and the landless are now

characterised by a complete lack of security owning to

failed harvests, illness and/or accidents as land use planning

is often not sufficiently developed to take into account the

floods, earthquakes, storms, anthropogenic hazards.

For proposing ecological planning (environmental

system) it is necessary to take holistic view by

understanding interaction among physical settings,

political and administrative structures; economy, market;

demographic and social structure, value and norms. To

achieve the goal are has to go in participatory mode

became process of dialogue (in proposed system) are

characterised by built-in conflict because different

interests, perceptions and conflicting claims will all clash

with one another. Efforts at dialogue must include the

establishment of mechanisms to ensure that enough

attention is given to the grass-root level otherwise planned

programme will not see light for it success. These are very

crucial in watershed planning. As social system and cultural

values and norms are of special importance in conserving

ecosystem. Further along with depletion of natural

resources, loss of cultural identity must also been seen as

part of widespread process of impoverishment that is

affecting many people.

Consultation meeting on soil-health assessmentA national level consultation meeting was also held on Soil-health Assessment at Bhopal on 26 February 2014. The meeting

envisaged identifying minimum data set for assessment of soil quality, proposing methodology for estimating soil quality

indices, establishing threshold levels for soil quality, which would serve as tools in developing strategies for soil-health

management and identify management sensitive indicators in relation to input use efficiency and food security.

Dr A.K. Sikka (DDG, NRM) stressed on partnerships, policy, institutional support and location-specific technologies to reach

to the teeming millions of the country. He also called for finding the best ways and means for reconciliation of past data to

give a unified picture from the institute and streamlining and fine-tuning sampling plan and analysis for soil mapping.

Courtsey: www.icar.org.in



Conservation agriculture-a step to reduce carbon footprintDARPAN CHHABRA

CONSERVATION Agriculture (CA) is based on three

principles that enhance natural biological processes,

allowing farmers to better conserve soil and water

resources while reducing labour and fuel costs as given

below:

• Minimize mechanical soil disturbance from ploughing

or harrowing to maintain soil fertility, prevent soil

erosion and the loss of soil-stored moisture.

• Retain an adequate amount of stubble and straw,

and sow seed directly through the permanent ground

cover using specialized zero-till or direct seeding

machines to open a narrow slot or trench in otherwise

unprepared soil.

• Diversify annual crop rotations (or intercropping) to

soil fertility and control pests and diseases. (Winter

2013: PARTNERS in research for development: the

DRYLAND agriculture REVOLUTION).

Conservation Agriculture from the perception of

Reducing Carbon Footprint

CA defines the technological solutions to cope up with

decreasing agricultural productivity by practicing time and

money saving agricultural productivity enhancement tools.

From the perspective of reducing carbon footprint these

tools also invite carbon slashing during tillage, using

chemical fertilizers and blazing crop fields.

Why to practice CA?

CA is an important tool to minimize carbon footprint.

Features of CA acting to reduce carbon footprint:

Process Feature

Seed sowing by no Use direct seed drillers.

tilling method E.g., Happy Seeder

Fertilizers Application of Fermented

Plant Juices (FPJ)s

Seed varieties Using improved varieties

of seeds

Seed sowing pattern Mixed cropping

Tilling No tillage

Seed sowing by no tilling method

CA is a no-tillage based technique. It utilizes direct

seed drillers- Happy Seeder practiced in Punjab, rather

than tilling operation which consumes more power in the

operations shred stalks, field cultivation, spring tooth

harrow.

Carbon footprint tally chart:

Seed Drilling Type of fuel Carbon

methods consumed & emissions/ha

area of farm land

Shred stalks Diesel: 8 liters@ ~20.8 & ~13.0

and field per hectare KgCO2e/ha

cultivation 3 liters @ & per ~33.8

by tractor hectare, KgCO2e/ha

(Conventional) respectively

Happy seeder Diesel: 8 liters@ ~20.8

(CA) per hectare KgCO2e/ha

Fertilizers

CA encourages FPJs rather than chemicals like urea.


Fertilizer Amount used/ha Carbon emission/ha

Urea 250 kg/ha ~450 kgCO2e/ha

(Conventional)

FPJ (CA) 1 liter/ha ~0

Seed varieties

Improved varieties comprises of composite varieties

which require less water thus saving the water

consumption. Pumping hours are reduced thereby

reducing carbon footprint.


Crop seed type Fuel consumed for Carbon

4 hours pumping emissions

per day @ 3 months

crop season/ha

Indigenous ~50 liters for 4 hours ~14242

(Conventional) pumping per day @ kgCO2e/ha

3 months/ha=

~4500 liters

Improved seed ~20 liters for 4 hours ~7121

varieties (CA) pumping per day @ kgCO2e/ha

3 months/ha=

~2250 liters

Cropping pattern

Mixed cropping invites less water pumping hours in

comparison to single cropping. 2 crops grown in single

season has to suffer two times water requirements

in comparison to 1 time water requirement in case of

2 crops grown at single time.




Crop pattern Pumping hours per Carbon

season/ha emissions

Single cropping ~50 liters for 4 hours ~14242

(conventional) pumping per day @ 3 kgCO2e/ha

months/ha=~4500 liters

Mixed cropping ~20 liters for 4 hours ~7121

(CA) pumping per day @ 3 kgCO2e/ha

months/ha=~2250 liters

Tilling

Straws are not burned in CA as happy seeder directly

drills the seed into the ground. Thus an ample amount of

GHGs emissions is cut off.


Tilling method Amount of Carbon

straw burned emission

/ha /ha

Tilling done by 600 kg ~240 kgCO2e

burning straw /ha

No tilling 0 kg 0 kgCO2e/ha

Thus CA features proved that it reduces carbon

footprint.

In 2011, CA was practiced on about 110 million

hectares of farm land worldwide. This includes mixed

farming and seed drilling methods.

SOIL and water promote biological

activity in the top productive

zone of land, and make it fit to grow

plants on which human food security

depends. Effectively managing the

rainfall and water flow on the land,

which will prevent soil erosion and

promote and maintain a biologically

alive and active soil medium should

be utmost priority of the concerned authorities in the

country. In India, the soil & water conservation is in

practice for more than six decades. Earlier, the field

practices adopted for soil and water conservation were

afforestation of the sandy Shivalik mountains, and torrent

bed and bank treatment. The practice of watt-bandi (field

bund strengthening) was also promoted. Stream banks

were planted with conservation vegetation like

Arundodonax, lpomea cornea. Lannea grandis and others.

Grassing of newly constructed bunds was promoted with

grasses like Cynodon dactylon, Cynodon plectostachium,

Chloris gayana, Para grass and others. Check dams and

revetments were built in the beds and on the banks of

streams and torrents in their eroding reaches.

The largest conservation effort was, however, made

in the Deccan Plateau, especially in the erstwhile Bombay

Province. Field bunds were built on a large scale to

conserve the scanty rainfall. Spillways, duly designed,

were, however, absent. The result was widespread

breaches in the field bunds. An Enquiry Committee was

asked to investigate and suggest modification in the field

practices. This Enquiry resulted in the start of now well-

known Contour Bunding programme. Well-designed

spillways were also built in the bunds. Field to field drainage

was confined to small areas, which they called self-

defended catchments. Soil erosion research was started

at Sholapur in Maharashtra under Dr. J.K. Basu.

Maharashtra experience was extended to the rest of India,

with modifications, after independence.

Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) was the first in

the country to start, in 1949-50, a multi-disciplinary

Department of Soil Conservation with technical officers of

various disciplines like Engineering, Forestry, Agronomy

and Extension. DVC’s Research Station at Deochanda did

valuable research in land use management. This writer

happened to be one of the few first conservationists of

the DVC. Land use planning and reclamation were

systematically attempted. Wastelands were surveyed for

soil resources and reclaimed through bench terraces with

heavy earth moving machines, for rehabilitation of the

farmers, ousted by submergence by the high dams on the

Damodar river and its tributaries like barakar and Konar.

Soil Conservation Research, Demonstration and Training

Centres were started by the Government of India at Dehradun

for Gazetted Officers and at other places like Ootacamund,

Bellary, Kota, Vasad, Chandigarh and Agra, for the Assistant

level staff. These Centres had multi-disciplinary staff like

conservation engineers, soil scientists, agronomists and forest

specialists. These Research Centres later developed into the

present Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and

Training Institute, Dehradun. States were persuaded to utilize

the trained personnel by statting wings or full-fledged

departments of soil and water conservation.

The two most important field practices for

agricultural land of 180 million hectares (140 m ha of annual

sown area plus culturable waste land and fallows) in India

would be land levelling and water development. Land

levelling operation should gather the top soil first,

level the land, and re-spread the saved top soil. Water

development should concentrate upon ground water

first and provide an electric or diesel pump set to each

farmer, so that he has control over the water applied.

Indiscriminate irrigation has created problems of water

logging and salinity on a vast scale. Drainage is a neglected

subject which must receive more attention.

Restructuring of agriculture should be an urgent policy

programme today. Land in each State should be grouped.

Soil & water conservation foundation of perpetual food securityO.P. CHOUDHARY



EVEN if physical and economic

access to food is assured,

ecological factors which are directly

linked to pace and process of

agriculture development will

determine the long-term

sustainability of food security

systems. Therefore, there is a need

to revitalise agriculture, restore the natural resource base

and provide for sustainable livelihoods. Any development

alternative to ensure long-term food security has to be

linked to sustainable agriculture.

The important forces which directly affect the

problem of food security and sustainable development of

agriculture in the country are:

Technological changesThe bio-chemical technology introduced in the mid-

sixties has been the major exogenous technological change

witnessed by Indian agriculture. No doubt, India has

emerged from a food deficit to self-sufficient status.

However, the benefits of the green revolution have come

with high costs. A lot of data and information are now

available that underscores the alarming degree to which

current patterns of production are impoverishing and

destabilising the natural resources and environment and

thereby undermining the prospects of future generations.

However, the gain of technological changes cannot be

ignored. Now the country requires a sweeping technological

change. Technological advances in molecular biology,

energy, and information and communications have the

potential to help achieve food security for poor people and

make natural resource management more sustainable.’

Degradation and depletion of natural resourcesAgriculture resources in several areas have been

severely degraded and depleted. Sign of agro-ecosystem

stress and even of its break down are visible here and

there. Degradation of natural resources is rampant in

many resource-poor areas of developing countries. To be

sustainable, food security solutions must address natural

resource issues effectively.

Human healthThe human health problems such as chronic diseases

not only destroy human lives, but also impoverish millions

of people by raising the cost of health care, and cause

severe shortages of productive workers.

UrbanisationThe problem of food insecurity and malnutrition is

not only confined to rural areas. Future policy actions must

pay increasing attention to growing poverty, food

insecurity, and malnutrition in urban areas. By 2020 about

half of the people will live in urban areas.

The changing priority for farmingWith the aging of the farm population, the increasing

role of females in agriculture, and the decreasing cost of

capital inputs relative to labour, the nature of farming are

changing rapidly in many developing countries. Small-scale

family farms, traditionally the backbone of much of

developing-country agriculture, are under threat. The reverse

land leasing practices (land leasing in by large farmers and

leasing out by small farmers) in the labour scares and

prosperous states are the ample evidences for this change.

Policy reformsIt is increasingly believed that climate change is

leading to more frequent and more severe natural disasters

leading to the severe strain on farm income. Natural

calamities not only affect the current year income but

also leave little to invest in subsequent years. Therefore,

the future agricultural policies must focus on finding ways

to keep agriculture productive as climate change continues.

Continued unrestViolent conflicts continue to cause human misery and

eat away sufficient amount of development resources.

Achieving sustainable food security for all will not be

possible in the midst of unrest and conflict.

Infrastructure facilities and policy supportWith the economic liberalisation business and industry,

and non-government organisations are undertaking many

activities previously performed by the national/state

governments. Government is trying to minimise its role

giving space for the private players. However, government

must retain its capacity to perform the functions that only

they can do, such as ensuring the rule of law and developing

nationwide infrastructure.

Accelerating trade liberalizationLiberalisation increases competition and thereby

competence. It also provide new opportunities needed

for broad-based economic growth and poverty alleviation.

However, to make best use of opportunities and to convert

threat too in to opportunity, require constant watch

supported by right policies and institutions at both national

and regional levels. To see that the benefits of

globalization and liberalisation reaches to the poor section

of society need policy support.

Steps to be undertakenIt is often argued that sustainability can produce

better food crops but not better yield but it is forgotten

that sustainable and integrated farming systems give far

better results in the long run when they employ traditional

inputs like intensive labour, mixed cropping, water

harvesting techniques and use of organic manure and

pesticides. Along with increased agricultural production

rapid economic growth is essential for achieving sustainable

food security for all. The challenge is to achieve the growth

in a way that benefits the poor-pro poor economic growth.

The specific policies that will be most appropriate will vary

according to local and national circumstances.

Sustainable agriculture and food security

SHAMSHER SINGH



CONSIDERING the immense scope for improving land

productivity for enhancing the agriculture production

in the state through integrated watershed farming

systems approach by implementation of the IWMP project

in the state, the Soil Conservation Society of India organised

one day training programme on Integrated Watershed

Management on 3rd February, 2014 at Nefdi House,

Guwahati. The state Govt. sponsored 30 Senior Officers

working in different divisions of the Soil Conservation in

the state. The programme was inaugurated by Shri S. Thiek,

Addl. Secretary, Soil Conservation and CEO to SLNA IWMP,

Govt. of Assam. It was emphasised that there is a need

of such training programme under the IWMP project in

the state.

The Key note address was delivered by Dr Suraj Bhan,

President of Soil Conservation Society of India. It was

stressed by him that the Land degradation is a major threat

to our food and environment security and the extent of

degradation problems are more pronounced in rainfed

regions. Large potential of rainfed agriculture is untapped

largely due to lack of enabling policy support and

investments. In drought-prone rainfed areas, watershed

management has shown the potential of doubling the

agricultural productivity, increase in water availability, and

restoration of ecological balance in the degraded rainfed

ecosystems by greening these areas and diversification of

cropping farming systems. Impact of various watershed

programmes can be substantially enhanced by developing

new approaches and enabling policies new paradigm

based on learning over last 30 years for people-centric

holistic watershed management involving convergence,

collective action, and consortium approach, capacity

development to address equity, efficiency, environment

and economic concerns is urgently needed. However, this

can be used as entry point activity for improving livelihood

for rural community.

Government of India has launched various centre-

sector, state-sector and foreign aided schemes for

prevention of land

degradation, reclamation

of special problem areas for

ensuring productivity of

the land, preservation of

land resources and

improvement of ecology

and environment. These

schemes are being

implemented on

watershed basis in rainfed

areas. Soil conservation

measures and reclamation of degraded lands are decided

considering the land capability and land uses. The efforts

made so far resulted in enhancement of agricultural

production and productivity of lands, increase in

employment generation, improving the environment of

the areas and socio-economic upgradation of the people.

Integrated watershed management approach has been

adopted as a key national strategy for sustainable

development of rural areas.

The training was organized at Assam, for Junior/

middle officers of Assam Govt. in Seminar Hall of Nedfi

House, Guwahati from February 4-6, 2014. The training

program was sponsored by NRAA organized by SCSI, Delhi.

The program was conducted as per the approved

training programme on from 4-6th February, 2014 at Nefdi

House, Guwahati. The state Govt. Sponsored 30 Junior/

Middle Officers from different divisions of the Soil

Conservation in the state. In the forenoon on the 1st day

three lectures followed by 2 lectures of the day. The Second

day four lectures were delivered by the resource person

and afternoon three lectures were delivered to the

participants followed by the discussion among the

participants. The third day training programme two

lectures in the forenoon were delivered by the resource

person followed by feedback from the participants and

technical discussion.

Integrated watershed managementtraining programme



Published by Secretary General, Soil Conservation Society of India, National Societies Block A/G-4, National Agricultural Science

Centre (NASC) Complex, Dev Prakash Shastri Marg, Pusa, New Delhi 110 012; Tel.: 011-25848244; Telefax: 25848244;

e-mail: [email protected], [email protected]; Website: www.soilcsi.in

Laser typeset by M/s Dot & Design, New Delhi ([email protected]) and printed at M/s Chandu Press, Delhi 110 092

([email protected])

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON

NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT FOR

FOOD SECURITY & RURAL LIVELIHOOD (NRMFRC)

VenueNational Agricultural Science Centre (NASC) Complex,

Dev Prakash Shastri Marg, Pusa, New Delhi 110 012

Organized bySoil Conservation Society of India

New Delhi

10-13 February 2015

D N Tiwari

J S Samra

J S Bali

A K Sikka

Suraj Bhan

Suraj Bhan

V K Bharti

Sanjay Arora

Jagatveer Singh

Advisor, J S Bali

Editorial Board

Advisory Board

• Poor socio-economic conditions of the farming

community limiting introduction of high investment

technologies.

Salt affected soils coming under panchayat lands,

community lands and government owned lands reserved

for specific purposes can be profitably used for the

cultivation of salt tolerant woody biomass species which

would yield value-added materials like timber, fodder,

food, pharmaceuticals which in turn add to the national

economy. Reclamation of such lands for crop production

is posing problems owing to common property rights. For

afforestation of such lands plants like Prosopis juliflora,

Acacia nilotica, Eucalyptus tereticornis and Tamarix

articulata which would yield appreciable amounts of

biomass are ideal.

In addition to biomass production, these tree species

would help in ameliorating soils by improving soil physical,

chemical and biological properties of the soil. Leguminous

tree species like Prosopis juliflora and Acacia nilotica

ameliorate alkali soils at a much faster rate than non-

leguminous plants.

Salt affected soils, which pose serious threat to the

economy of the coastal states. While soils with low and

moderate salinity have been put under cultivation, highly

saline black soils by and large remain either barren

or possess some native hardy species. Thus, for the

management of

moderate to highly

saline soils, agro-

technology for the

cultivation of

e c o n o m i c a l l y

important and salt

tolerant halophyte

has been effective.

S a l v a d o r a

persica L. (Meswak),

a facultative

halophyte which is a

potential source for

seed oil has been identified as a predominant species in

highly saline habitats of coastal and inland black soils. This

species is a medicinal plant of great value and its bark

contains resins and an alkaloid called Salvadoricine. The

seeds are good source of non-edible oil rich in fatty acids

having immense applications in soap and detergent

industry. Some important halophyte species which can be

used in Biosaline agriculture programmes are Salvadora

persica, Salicornia brachiata, Cressa cretica, Aeluropus

lagopoides, Sprorobolus airoides, Eragrostis species.

These species not only thrive well and can use both saline

soils and saline water for economic production and

environmental regreening.

Such soils can also be profitably used for production

of economically important products such as timber, fodder,

fuel, pharmaceuticals. Arable use of these soils is only

possible under careful irrigation management or in the

more humid regions, where salt tolerant crops such as

rice, millet or palms can be grown as well as salt tolerant

forage species and biomass species.

...Contd. from page 2

SCSI News Jan-March 2014 (1)

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