Day 64 – Q 4. Despite making India a food surplus country, Green Revolution has also done a long term damage on the India soils. Elucidate. What measures can be taken to restore the fertility of soils in India?
4. Despite making India a food surplus country, Green Revolution has also done a long term damage on the India soils. Elucidate. What measures can be taken to restore the fertility of soils in India?
Introduction:
Green Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s, not only made India a food surplus country from a food deficit one, but also resulted in huge economic benefits through job creation and improved gross domestic product. This achievement, however, got limited due to its long-term damage on Indian soils.
Body:
Negative impact of green revolution on soil:
- Soil alkalinity- Increased water usage by HYV crops and over-irrigation by farmers have made soils alkaline. The saline and alkaline affected tracts, locally known as kaller in Punjab and reh in Uttar Pradesh, have expanded and increased in area.
- Water logging- In canal irrigated areas water-logging is a serious ecological problem, for example, The Indira Gandhi Canal command area.
- Soil erosion- The agricultural area has been expanded into the pastures and forests, which are more susceptible to erosion.
- Declining soil fertility- Due to transformation of traditional rotation of crops, the place of leguminous crops (pulses etc.) has been taken by the soil exhaustive crops like rice, wheat, maize, bajra and cotton.
- Soil toxicity- Increased use of chemical fertilizers along with pesticides has increased the level of toxicity in the soil.
- Changed soil texture- Deep ploughing by tractors, absence of compost and green manuring have changed the texture of soil.
- Soil deficiency- Soil has become deficient in micro nutrients and overloaded with some macro nutrients like nitrogen due to overuse of urea.
Measures to restore fertility:
- Organic farming and use of manure to reduce the negative impacts of chemical fertilizers
- Judicious selection of crops to reduce the proportion of injurious salts in the soil.
- Cultivation of salt tolerant crops like barley, sugar beet, salt grass, asparagus, spinach and tomato may improve the fertility of alkaline lands
- Afforestation and agro-forestry to mitigate the effects of deforestation and conserve soil
- Use of practices like No-tillage farming, strip cropping can help prevent soil erosion and restore fertility in the long run.
- Crop diversification, crop rotation, growing legumes, composting etc. can also help restoring soil fertility.
Conclusion:
Green Revolution 2.0 that incorporates increased food production along with environmental protection is much needed. With huge population pressure, India cannot go completely organic, and it necessitates impetus to agriculture R&D to achieve the desired crop production while maintaining environmental sustainability.
Best answer: Sakshi
