Wasteland Reclamations for Sustainable Agriculture in the Context of India

The present study has elaborated as on how the land reclamation process of wasteland like land treatment, on-farm development, improvement of drainage systems, agricultural support services, institutional strengthening, and capacity building for use of sustainable agriculture and rangeland etc. Some of the techniques have been adopted i.e. reverse water-induced land degradation, detailed mapping, classification, and appropriate management techniques to develop sodic lands, formation of water user groups (WUGs), clarification and confirmation of the land titles and tenure arrangements, provision of shallow tube wells to help in reclamation operations and provide irrigation and application of chemical/organic amendments and plant nutrients to the soil to boost productivity etc. These have been explained in the research paper as center stage of the study and elaborated in full length paper. Another aspect, the notion of 'farmers’ participation' is now widely recognized as a basic operational principle of development programs. Farmers’ participation can ensure sustainability, it can also make development activities more effective. To examine this idea, a study is conducted on farmers’ participatory management under UPSLRP-III implied the active involvement of all the stakeholders at each stage of the project cycle. It is found that the project implementation target does not merely consist of execution of land reclamation activities and crop production, but it also extends sustenance of project impacts after the project gets over, it is just because of farmers’ participatory model. In this perspective, an effective system of participation was adopted from the beginning. Prakash et al. (1998) while analyzing the constraints in the adoption of soil conservation measures by the farmers of Doon Valley, found that the average knowledge of farmers was 46 per cent and adoption was 35 per cent for the recommended soil and water conservation measures (mechanical, agronomical, and vegetative). (Key words: Farmers participation, Soil Conservation & Land Reclamation, Sustainable Agriculture)