LAND

RESOURCE

Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale

Land is the most important valuable resource
for mankind,
 mixture : inorganic and organic materials.
 It provides food, fibre, medicine etc
 To construct infrastructure
 Acts as a dustbin for most of the wastes
created by the modern society.

Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale

 It is a process of deterioration of soil or loss of
fertility.
Effects of land degradation:
 Loss of soil fertility
 Loss of valuable nutrients
 Soil texture and structure are destructed
 Increase in water logging, salinity, alkalinity
and acidity problem.
 Loss of economic social and biodiversity.

Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale

1. Population:
More land is needed for producing food and fuel wood. So land is
degraded due to over exploitation.
2. Urbanisation:
Urbanisation reduces the agricultural land. Urbanisation leads to
deforestation, which in turn affects millions of plants and animals.
3. Fertilizers and pesticides: It affects fertility of the soil and causes
land pollution.
4. Damage of top soil:
Increase in food production generally leads to damage of top soil
through nutrient depletion.
5. Water logging, soil erosion, contamination of the soil with
industrial wastes and cause land degradation.
Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale
The process of removal of superficial layer of
the soil from one place to another is called
soil erosion.
 Harmful effects of soil erosion:
1. Soil fertility decreases due to the loss of top
soil layer.
2. Loss of it’s ability to hold water
3. Sediments run off can pollute water and kill
aquatic life.
Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale
1. water
water causes soil erosion in the form of rain, run off, rapid flow and wave action.
2. wind:
It carries away the fine particles of soil
3. Biotic agent:
Over grazing. 35% of soil erosion is due to over grazing and 30% is due to
deforestation.
4. Land slide:
It causes soil erosion
5. Construction:
Construction of dams, buildings, roads removes protective vegetal cover and leads
to soil erosion
6. mining and deforestation.

Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale

Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale
 The art of soil conservation is based on
following basic principles
▪ Terrace farming: slow down the water movement
when it flows along the slope.
▪ To encourage more water to enter into the soil.
▪ Wind break: Reduction in the wind velocity near
the ground by growing vegetation.
▪ Conservational tillage
▪ Agroforestry
Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale
 Conservational tillage:
▪ The process of mixing the residues from previous crops into the soil by
ploughing is called conservational tillage. It improves soil permeability and
increase organic matter, which in turn improve soil moisture and nutrients.

 Terrace farming:
▪ Conversion of steep slopes in to a series of broad terraces which run across the
contour. It reduces soil erosion by controlling run off.

 Agroforestry:
▪ Planting crops in between rows of trees or shrubs, that can provide fruits and
fuel wood. After harvesting the crops the soil will not be eroded because trees
and shrubs will remain on the soil and hold the soil particles.

 Wind break:
▪ Trees are planted in long rows along the boundaryo f cultivated lands, which
block the wind and reduces soil erosion.

Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale

It is a form of land degradation. It is a progressive
destruction or degradation of arid or semi arid
lands to destruct.
 Overgrazing
 Deforestation
 Erosion
 Salinization
 Natural Climate Change
 Over utilisation of water
 Mining and quarrying
 Excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides

Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale

Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale
 1. Irrigation water contains small amounts of
dissolved salts
 2. Evaporation and transpiration leave salts
behind
 3. Salt builds up on soil

Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale

Water logging (Excessive rainfall, inefficient drainage)
 Precipitation and irrigation water percolate
downward
 Water table rises
 Bad for roots cannot respire

Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale

 Reduce irrigation (Frequent and shallow (superficial) applications result in salt accumulation in the root
zone, while larger applications, in longer intervals, will flush the salts below the root zone.)

 Flush soils
 Switch to salt-tolerant crops (barley,
Cotton, sugarbeet)
 Not growing crops for 2-5 years

Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale

 Organic fertilizer
 Animal manure
 Compost
 Crop rotation

Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale

Natural or artificially produced materials, which
are used as food to derive metabolic energy,
are called as food resources.

Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale

 1. Agricultural
 2. Animal Husbandry
 3. Fishing
 4. Others

India is self- sufficient only because of modern patters of agriculture which

are unsustainable – pollution from fertilizers and pesticides

Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale

 Took place to reduce starvation in the 60’s
 Fertile soils are exploited faster than they can
recover
 Forests, grasslands, wetlands are converted
to agricultural land disturbing ecology
 Fish resources are being exhausted
 Disparities in availability of nutritious food in
different areas

Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale

when all people, at all times, have :
 physical and economic access to
 sufficient,
 safe, nutritious food that meets their dietary needs
 food preferences for an active and healthy life.
 stability over time

Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale

 Increased Population
 Insufficient production vs. growing demands
 Infertile soil, Salinization and water logging
 Lack of irrigation facility
 Adverse geographical Conditions
 Lack of transportation
 Insufficient distribution system
 High oil prices
 High cost of grains
 Not financially capable to import it
 Under nutrition and malnutrition
 Poverty: Volatility and higher food prices lead poor households to consume
food of lower nutritional value, entrenching them in a cycle of poor
nutrition.
 Women in receive less nutrition than men
Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale
 Climate change is affecting food production patterns
▪ Water scarcer and harder to access
▪ Changing rainfall patterns are likely to cause severe water shortages and/or
flooding as well as accelerate land degradation.
▪ Melting of glaciers are likely to lead to flooding and soil erosion.
▪ Rising temperatures will cause shifts in crop growing seasons, which affect food
security
 changes will place more people at risk from diseases.
 Disasters such as Floods, drought, earthquakes, storms, etc.

Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale

 Change in life-style leading to changing food habits. E.g. non-
vegetarian food. More demand for feed of livestock from
agriculture.
 Hoarding Food used for bio fuel , a transport fuel made from
biomass. US and EU mandates for ethanol production have
contributed to increasing demands and are likely to continue
pushing up food prices as they divert crops toward the
production of fuel.
 War

Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale

Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale
Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale
 Increase food production
 control population
 Altering food pattern and Land use
 Food human right
 Agro climatic planning (Adaptation and
improvement strategies)
 Emerging technologies use (including
biotechnology, information and management,
MIS)
 Technological inputs (Quality Seeds, organic
fertilizers, irrigation, etc -adequate)

Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale

 Conserves land, water,
 plant & animal genetic resources
 Does not degrade environment
 Economically viable
 Socially acceptable

Environment and Disaster Management: Dr. Samrudhi Navale