Lok Sabha Question No. 69 (STARRED), answered on 2023-02-07
Subject: Effects of Land Degradation
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Chandra Sekhar Bellana, Adala Prabhakara Reddy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE& FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE & FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK SABHA

## STARRED QUESTION NO. 69

TO BE ANSWERED ON 7 th  FEBRUARY, 2023

## EFFECTS OF LAND DEGERADATION

- *69. SHRI CHANDRA SEKHAR BELLANA SHRI ADALA PRABHAKARA REDDY

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ ष एवं कसान कयाण मंी be pleased to state: (a) Whether the problem of land degradation requires high input use from farmers and is leading to declining profit; (b) If so, whether the Government is compensating the added cost to the farmers; and

- (c) If so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ ष एवं कसान कयाण मंी (SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR) (a) to (c):      A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (a)  to  (c)  OF  LOK  SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 69 DUE FOR  ANSWER ON 07.02.2023  REGARDING EFFECTS OF LAND DEGERADATION.

(a) to (c):     As per the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India, 'Land' comes under  the  purview  of  State  Governments.  However,  the  Government  supports  and supplements the efforts of State Governments through its various programmes/schemes  which  help  to  reduce  land  degradation  process  and  in  turn increase agricultural production through sustainable means.

In  India  104.2  million  ha.  of  arable  land  is  affected  by  different  kinds  of  land degradation, of which 85.7 million ha. is affected by wind and water erosion, 17.5 million ha. by chemical degradation and 1.1 million ha. by physical degradation. In order to prevent and manage land degradation and improve productivity of degraded land, the Government has taken effective measures as below;

- I. i. Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has developed specific technologies for soil & water conservation, watershed management interventions, soil reclamation measures for saline, alkali, waterlogged and acid soils and selection of suitable crop including agroforestry interventions.
- ii. Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation (IISWC) has developed several location specific bio-engineering measures to check soil erosion due to run-off of rainwater, which are being promoted through various participatory watershed management programmes.
- iii. Central  Arid  Zone  Research  Institute,  Jodhpur  has  developed  sand  dune stabilization and shelter belt technology to check wind erosion.
- iv. Central  Soil  Salinity  Research  Institute,  Karnal  and  All  India  Coordinated Research  Project (AICRP)  on  Salt Affected Soils has developed  land reclamation technologysub-surface drainage, bio-drainage, agroforestry interventions  and  salt  tolerant  crop  varieties  to  improve  the  productivity  of saline, sodic and waterlogged soils in the country. Similarly, liming @ 2-4 q/ha in furrow along with integrated nutrient management has been recommended to  raise  the  productivity  of  acid  soils.  The  Indian  Council  of  Agricultural Research  (ICAR)-Central  Soil  Salinity  Research  Institute,  Karnal  is  also providing  technical  assistance  as  and  when  required  for  the  sub-surface drainage. ICAR has also developed 37 agroforestry models for different agroclimatic zones of the country for resource conservation, wasteland

management, enhancing farm profitability and risk management.

- v. To sustain the productivity of degraded lands under climate change, ICAR has developed resilient varieties in different crops tolerant to climatic stresses to improve the food grain production in the face of changing climate. Since 2014, a  total  of  2122  varieties  have  been  released  out  of  which  1752  are  climate resilient varieties which includes 400 abiotic stress tolerant varieties and 1352 are biotic stress tolerant. Sixty eight location-specific climate resilient technologies have been developed and popularized for wider adoption among the farming communities.

II. National  Mission  on  Sustainable  Agriculture  (NMSA)  is  one  of  the  Missions within the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) launched by Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare which aims to evolve and implement strategies to make Indian agriculture  more  resilient.  NMSA  also  addresses  the problem  of  land degradation.  NMSA was approved for three major components namely Rainfed Area Development  (RAD);  On  Farm  Water  Management  (OFWM);  and  Soil  Health Management  (SHM).  In  addition  to  aforementioned  programmes  Sub  Mission  on Agroforestry (SMAF) and Restructured National Bamboo Mission (NBM) have been brought  under  NMSA.  Also,  under  the  Rashtriya  Krishi  Vikas  Yojana  (RKVY)  a component  on  Reclamation  of  Problem  Soil  is  operational  from  2016-17  which  is dedicated to restoration of land leading to livelihood security.

Through  Integrated  Nutrient  Management  (INM)  efforts  have  been  made  to restore the soil fertility of the degraded lands by balanced use of chemical fertilizers. Under Soil Health Card Scheme 10.74 crore grid based soil health cards have been distributed during cycle-I of the scheme (2015 to 2017). During Cycle-II (2017 to 2019), 11.97 crore grid based soil health cards have been distributed. Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) has been implemented since 2015-16 for the first time in the country to promote chemical free organic farming in cluster approach with Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) certification.

III. The Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) was amalgamated as one of the components of PMKSY in 2015-16 and named as the Watershed Development Component of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (WDC-PMKSY).  Under WDC-PMKSY 1.0, Department of Land Resources provided

Central  assistance  for  6382  watershed  development  projects  in  28  States  and released Rs.19926.67 crore as Central share. The extended project period of WDCPMKSY 1.0 got over on 31.03.2022. The activities undertaken, inter alia, include ridge area  treatment,  drainage  line  treatment,  soil  and  moisture  conservation,  rainwater harvesting, nursery raising, pasture development, livelihoods for asset less persons etc. Under WDC-PMKSY 1.0, as per information received from the States/UTs, since 2014-15 to 2021-22, approximately 7.64 lakh water harvesting structures have been created / rejuvenated. An additional area of about 16.41 lakh ha has been brought under protective irrigation. The number of farmers benefited is about 36.34 lakh during this period. Further, during 2018-19 to 2021-22, 1.62 lakh ha. has been brought under plantation (Horticulture/Afforestation) and 3.36 lakh ha culturable wasteland treated in all completed projects. Government of India has also approved continuation of WDCPMKSY 2.0  with  a  physical  target  of  49.50  lakh  ha  of  rainfed/degraded  areas  in December, 2021. Under WDC-PMKSY 2.0, Department has already sanctioned 1110 watershed projects to States/UTs covering an area of 49.43 lakh hectare with total project cost of Rs. 12109.96 crore (Central share Rs. 7864.25 crore).

IV. Further, Government supports construction of water harvesting and conservation works primarily through Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee  Scheme  (MGNREGS).  Mission  Amrit  Sarovar  launched  as  a  part  of celebration of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav with an objective to conserve water for future. The Mission is aimed at developing and rejuvenating 75 water bodies in each district of the country. As on date, 93970 sites have been identified and work has commenced on  55660  sites.  The  work  has  been  completed  on  29520  sites.  In  addition,  large number of water bodies such as farm ponds, dug wells, check dams and community ponds (water harvesting & Fishery) have been created under the MGNREGS Scheme. A total of 64,09,852 water harvesting structures have been created so far under the scheme.

V. Under price  support  scheme,  the Government announces Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for major agricultural commodities each year in both the crop seasons based  on  various  factors  including  input  cost.  Thus  any  increase  in  input  cost  is factored in the MSP.

Although land degradation is understood to have its negative impact on food crops in terms of productivity, the negative impacts have been dealt with effectively through various Government interventions. This is borne out by the fact that the food grains production has continuously increased in the country during last 5 years which can be seen in the below table.

(in million tonnes)

| Year                      |   2017-18 |   2018-19 |   2019-20 |   2020-21 |   2021-22 |
|---------------------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
| Production of food grains |    285.01 |    285.21 |     297.5 |    310.74 |    315.72 |

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