Sustainable Land Use in Indian Agriculture – Challenges and Issues – A Way Forward (ABSTRACT)

                                                                                  (ABSTRACT)

                       Sustainable Land Use in Indian Agriculture  – Challenges  and Issues

                                                              – A Way   Forward

                 

                                                                                                                                                                            

                   We all know that the supply land is perfectly inelastic (fixed) in relation to its demand. Hence, it must be used judiciously. Land represents an important resource for the economic life of a majority of people in this world. The way people handle and use land resources impacts their social and economic life as well as the sustained quality of land resources. The growing development, increasing population, urbanization and industrialization is increasing pressure on land resource. Due to unplanned and haphazard use of land resources, it gets increasingly affected by the conflicting land uses, besides posing serious concerns and negative impacts. The concerns can even become more serious in an emerging country like India, which has at present over 17.86% of world’s population living on 2.4% of the world’s geographical area. Land use planning and management is a known strategy for achieving sustainable development. A properly prepared land use plan based on sound scientific and technical procedures, and land utilization strategies can summarize rationally for the future demands. Since the earth Summit in 1992, the international community, individual countries, communities, civil society and businesses have increasingly become aware of the environmental impact of land use.

                  A sustainable land use in agriculture , especially in India must satisfy a large variety of requirements, including technological feasibility, economic viability, political desirability, administrative manageability, social acceptability, and environmental soundness. Real world conditions at farm and policy-making levels need to be substantially improved to achieve sustainable land  use management. In the twenty-first century, food production systems has to meet the  three major requirements - (a) Adequately supply of safe nutritious, and sufficient food for the growing population. (b) Significantly reduce rural poverty by sustaining the farming-derived component of rural household incomes. (c) Reduce and reverse natural resource degradation, especially that of land. It is now known that these challenges will need to be resolved in the face of significant but highly unpredictable changes in global climate—a key factor in natural and agro ecosystem productivity. Other major issues that will influence how agriculture evolves to meet the challenge of food security include globalization of markets and trade, the increasing market orientation of agriculture, significant technological changes, and increasing public concern about the effects of unsustainable natural resource management. In this circumstances, this Paper make an attempt to Study the following objectives:

1.      To Study sustainable land use in Indian Agriculture.

2.      To Study impending impacts of climate change and variability issues that have direct bearing on agricultural land use and Rural development.

3.      To Study outlines possible technologies that are land-based activities for effective agro-technology transfer strategies and approaches.

4.      To Study how land use planning activities are likely to improve nutrition and food security and enhance the livelihoods of the small and marginal farmers.

5.      Challenges, Issues and Suggestions.

Methodology: The Study is based on the Secondary data and information accessed from relevant Journals, Books, News Papers, Websites and Reports.