This document discusses soil conservation in India. It begins by defining soil conservation as using practices to protect soil from degradation by preserving soil life and organic matter. It then discusses several principles of soil conservation, including managing runoff, protecting exposed soil, and preventing downstream pollution. It provides statistics on land degradation in India, noting that about 146.8 Mha are degraded by various factors like erosion. Finally, it outlines several soil conservation practices used in India, such as contour ploughing, terrace farming, cover crops, and salinity management, to prevent further degradation and build up organic matter.

1. MMDU MULLANA AMBALA
Name
Class
Roll No.
Sem/ Year
Subject
Topic
_ Prince
_ M.Sc. Agronomy (Ag.)
_ 26207006
_ 2nd / 1st
_ Soils 502
_
Submitted To _ Dr. Manju Thakur mam
Soil Conservation in
Special Problem Areas

2. Soil conservation is a "combination" of practices used to
protect the soil from degradation. First and foremost, soil
conservation involves treating the soil as a living ecosystem,
and recognizing that all the organisms that make the soil their
home, play important roles in producing
a fertile healthy environment.
They are responsible for
breaking down organic matter,
releasing nutrients, and opening
up spaces for the circulation of
air and water.
 Introduction to Soil Conservation

3. > Because most organisms in the soil
depend on dead plant and animal
matter for their food and energy, soil
conservation requires that organic
matter be returned to the soil on a
continual basis. Organic matter is what
provides good soil structure and water
holding capacity, promotes water
infiltration, and protects the soil from
erosion and compaction.

4. >In addition to preserving soil life and organic matter,
the other principles of soil conservation are to:
1. manage surface runoff,
2.protect bare exposed soil surfaces, and highly
susceptible sites (e.g. steep slopes).
3. protect downstream watercourses from
sedimentation and pollution.

5. Soil Conservation effect

6. > Major soil and water conservation problems in
various agro-climatic zones of India are reported
by Pathak Key land degradation mitigation
techniques in the agro-climatic zones
of India are compiled by Bhattacharyya.
>Based on experiences from the various soil water
conservation programmes and research station
work in India, the soil and water conservation
practises
of different agro-climatic zones of India are
identified (Table 1)

7. Table 1. Soil and water conservation problems in
various agroclimatic zones of India.

8. Out of a total reported geographical area of 329
Mha of India, about 146.8 Mha are degraded by
various factors. Water erosion and wind erosion
together account for 70% of the total degraded
land
and the remaining 30% is due to salinity, acidity
and combination of other factors. Annual soil loss
of India is estimated as 5334 Mt along with these
8.4 Mt of major nutrients also lost (Prasad and
Biswas, 2000).
Soil Conservation problems in india

9. Annually, 2052 million tonnes of soil
is carried by rivers out of this nearly 480 million
tonnes is being deposited in various reservoirs
which results in 1–2% loss of storage capacity per
year
>According to National Commission on Agriculture,
reservoirs in India are silting up at a rate of three to
four times faster than the designed rates. It is a
matter of concern that out of 329 Mha geographical
area, about 145 Mha is under cultivation and there
is no scope to bring more area under cultivation.

10. An estimate says that 430 Mha land is subjected
to severe land degradation in the world and the
impact of degradation in Asia will be around 18%. In
India, high percentage of area under degraded land
in Jammu and Kashmir (69.24%), Himachal Pradesh
(50.90%) is due to snow cover and degraded forest;
Nagaland (22.37%), Manipur (59.01%), Mizoram
(21.20%) is due to shifting cultivation, Sikkim
(53.67%) is due to degraded forest and in Rajasthan
(29.64%) is due to sandy area.
Degradation Land Area in india

11. The severity and extent of soil degradation in
the country has been previously assessed by many
agencies (Table 2). According to the National
Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning,
146.8
Mha land is degraded in India. Water and wind
erosion are the most serious degradation problem
in India, resulting in loss of topsoil and terrain
deformation followed by acidity and water logging
>. Based on first approximation analysis of
existing soil loss data, the average soil erosion rate

12. Table 2. Average of soil conservation problems
was 16.4 ton ha-1 year-1, resulting in an annual total soil loss of
5.3 billion tons throughout the country. Nearly 29% of total eroded
soil is permanently lost to the sea, while 61% is simply transferred
from one place to another and the remaining 10% is
deposited in reservoirs.

13. Soil conservation practices are tools the farmer can use to
prevent soil degradation and build organic matter. These
practices include: crop rotation, reduced tillage, mulching, cover
cropping and cross-slope farming. farmers to increase soil
organic matter content, soil structure and rooting depth.
1 Contour ploughing.
2 Terrace farming.
3 Keyline design.
4 Perimeter runoff control.
5 Windbreaks.
6 Cover crops/crop rotation.
7 Soil-conservation farming.
8 Salinity management.
Method of Soil conservation

17. Thank you