what is waste land and why has area under barren land and waste land been reduced
Answers
Answer:
waste land refers to land in which the minerals are degraded
Explanation:
the area of land under barren land and waste land has been reduced because the soil is not capable of growing crops in it and it is loss for both the farmer and the GDP of the country
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The non technical definition of wasteland from the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary is ‘An empty area of land, especially in or near a city, which is not used to grow crops or built on, or used in any way and/or a place, time or situation containing nothing positive or productive, or completely without a particular quality or activity’.
According to Integrated Wasteland Development Programme, Wasteland is a degraded land which can be brought under vegetative cover, with reasonable effort, and which is currently under utilised and land which is deteriorating for lack of appropriate water and soil management or on account of natural causes.
Accelerating growth of wastelands/degraded lands created a buzz to the Government. The growing concern to prevent this extraordinary growth, Government of India have set up the National Wastelands Development Board in 1985 under the Ministry of Environment & Forests.
Unculturable Wasteland– The land that cannot be developed for vegetative cover, for instance the barren rocky areas and snow covered glacier areas.
Wasteland reclamation is the process of turning barren sterile wasteland into that is fertile and suitable for habitation and cultivation. Reclamation depends on the type of wasteland. Some kinds of wastelands can be made fit for the development of agriculture. Others within a reasonable cost can only be made suitable for growing grasses, shrubs or trees and not crops.
By reducing the salt content of soil through leaching and flushing and using gypsum, urea, potash and compost before planting, crops can convert fallow and cultivable waste into usable one.
Tree plantation on community lands and wastelands, agro forestry can be used as an effective strategy of wasteland development.
Integrated Wasteland Development Project (IWDP) Scheme has been launched in 1989-90. The basic objective of this scheme is an integrated wasteland development based on village/micro watershed plans. These plans are prepared after taking into consideration the land capability, site condition and local needs of the people.
Wasteland is reducing due to following reasons:
1. Afforestation:
It means growing the forest over culturable wasteland.
2. Reforestation:
Growing the forest again over the lands where they were existing and was destroyed due to fires, overgrazing, and excessive cutting. Reforestation checks water logging, floods, soil erosion and increase productivity of land.
3. Providing surface cover:
The easiest way to protect the land surface from soil erosion is of leave crop residue on the land after harvesting.
4. Mulching:
Here also protective cover of organic matter and plants like stalks, cotton stalks, tobacco stalks etc. are used which reduce evaporation, help in retaining soil moisture and reduce soil erosion.
5. Changing Ground Topography on Downhill’s:
Running water erodes the hill soil and carries the soil along with it. This can be minimized by following alternation in ground topography:
(a) Strip farming:
Different kinds of crops are planted in alternate strip along the contour.
(b) Terracing:
In this arrangement, the earth is shaped in the form of levelled terraces to hold soil and water. The terrace edges are planted with such plant species which anchor the soil.
(c) Contour ploughing:
In this arrangement, the ploughing of land is done across the hill and not in up and down style.
6. Leaching:
In salt affected land, the salinity can be minimized by leaching them with more water.
7. Changing agricultural practices:
Like mixed cropping, crop rotation and cropping of plants are adopted to improve soil fertility.
8. Ecological Succession:
This refers to the natural development or redevelopment of an ecosystem which help in reclaiming the minerally deficient soil of wasteland.
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