Answer the following questions in not more than 150 words.

What are the different types of environmental problems of land resources in India?

Land resources in India faces different types of environmental problems, these are:

Dependence on Erratic Monsoon

• Irrigation covers only 33% of cultivated area in India. The crop production in rest of the cultivated land directly depends on rain.

• Thus, poor performance of the South-West Monsoon can have adverse effect on agricultural output.

• Moreover, rainfall in drought-prone areas is too meagre and highly unreliable. In addition, flash floods are often triggered by the rains.

• Hence, dependence on Monsson makes agricultural and land resource vulnerable to both drought and floods.

Low Productivity

• The yield of crops in India is low in comparison to the international level.

• Per hectare output of most crops such as rice, wheat, cotton and oilseeds in India is much lower than that of the U.S.A., Russia and Japan.

• Also because of the high pressure on the land resources, the labour productivity in Indian agriculture is also very low in comparison to international level.

Lack of Commercialisation

• Large number of farmers produce crops for self-consumption, as these farmers do not have enough land resources to produce more than their requirement.

• Most of the small and marginal farmers grow food grains, which are meant for their own family consumption.

• Modernisation and commercialisation of agriculture have, however, taken place in irrigated areas.

Small Farm Size and Fragmentation

• The average size of land holding, in India, is shrinking under increasing population pressure.

• Thus, there are a large number of marginal and small farmers in the country, whose land holdings are often fragmented.

• The small size fragmented landholdings are uneconomic.

Degradation of Cultivable Land

• Faulty strategy of irrigation results in land degradation, since it may lead to depletion of soil fertility.

• In irrigated regions, a large tract of agricultural land has lost its fertility due to alkaliation and salinisation of soils and waterlogging.

• Excessive use of chemicals such as insecticides and pesticides has led to their concentration in toxic amounts in the soil profile.

Land resources, in India, does not have a unified supervising body and it is being used according to the market logic. This has led to several problems in sustainable management of land resources, key among them listed above.