How soil is conserve in Nilgiris ?
Answers
The study was taken up in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. The high amount of intense rainfall with their high erosivity of soils coupled with moderate to very steep slopes makes this hilly region prone to severe erosion. The area prone for soil erosion is 68,100 ha in the district. The soil loss in the Nilgiris is reported to exceed 40 tonnes/ha/year (Anonymous, 1993). The prevalence of conducive agro-climatic environment in the Nilgiris favours extensive cultivation of horticultural crops even in undulating topography. In spite of substantial efforts and huge investments made on soil conservation, limited success has been achieved. Despite the benefits due to investment on soil conservation technologies, there are still sizeable number of farmers who are not serious to invest on soil conservation. Hence, analysing soil conservation technology adoption is important to redesign public interventions and to encourage soil conservation. Thus the three issues are integrated in the analytical framework. In order to achieve precision in the analysis, the hypotheses were formulated. They were: soil erosive farm practices lead to a decline in crop productivity and thus decrease the farm returns; the conservation structures enhanced the net benefit and the land value is highly influenced by the qualitative attributes of land (soil); and soil conservation investment is determined by socio-economic, physical and institutional parameters. In view of what have been discussed above, a study was made in the Nilgiris district with the following specific objectives: (a) to assess the extent and nature of soil conservation practices adopted by the farmers; (b) to evaluate the financial gains of investment on different soil conservation technologies; (c) to study the changes in farm land value as a result of investment on soil conservation technologies; and (d) to determine the factors (viz., personal, physical, institutional and socio-economic) influencing farmers' decision to adopt the conservation measures.
Explanation:
The area prone for soil erosion is 68,100 ha in the district. The soil loss in the Nilgiris is reported to exceed 40 tonnes/ha/year (Anonymous, 1993).
In spite of substantial efforts and huge investments made on soil conservation, limited success has been achieved.