Management of wasteland

1. Management of
wastelands
K. Maheshwaran,Asst. Prof. (SS&AC)
Sethu Bhaskara Agricultural College &
Research Foundation
SAC 202 Problematic soil and their management (2+0)
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2. Major problems of reclaiming wastelands
 Community ownership of land, making
maintenance of assets
 Lack of integrated site specific technology and
infrastructure
 High investment and long gestation period
 Non-availability of institutional finance due to
low credit worthiness of farmers having waste
lands
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Reclamation of culturable wastelands

3.  Methods used for its development will consist
of two major objectives
1. Stop further degradation
2. Development or reclamation of the degraded
land
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Reclamation of culturable wastelands

4. Salt-affected lands
 Flushed by making water stagnant for one or
two days
 Salts can be scrapped by a spade
 Plants which need more water and given
frequent irrigations for leaching of salts from
surface to sub-soil or even below
 Varieties are tolerant to salt may be used
 Land drainage and use of soil amendments
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Reclamation of wastelands

5.  Bench terracing
 Check dams
 Levelling of lands
 Water harvesting
technology
 Planting of wind breaks
or barriers
 Choice of crops to be
either xerophytic or
low water needing
crops
 Mulching
 Shelter belts
 Social afforestation
with deep rooted trees
 Providing a vegetative
cover
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Reclamation of wastelands
Sandy areas

6. Ravinous and Gullied Areas
 All the gullies to be filled by rocks followed by
soil
 Providing diversion channels for water drainage
and then terracing
 Check dams to reduce the flow of water have
to be made and along with silt trapping clay
dams may also constructed
 Grow the crops which grow fast and cover the
soil
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Reclamation of wastelands

7.  Areas can be planted with multipurpose trees
for fodder, fuel, timber, fruits etc.
 In addition to this, steps should be taken to
arrest further degradation by erecting physical
structures to plug the gullies and to store the
water
 Combination of trees and perennial grasses ,
provides a complete protection.
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Reclamation of wastelands

8. Mining / Industrial Wastelands
 Monitoring and regulations of activities
Steep sloping areas
 Agroforestry for sloping lands called Sloping
Agricultural Land technology (SALT)
1. Control soil erosion
2. Help restore soil structure and fertility
3. Produce food efficiently
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Reclamation of wastelands

9. Degraded pastures/grazing lands
 Fencing of pasture lands
 Moisture conservation
 Reseeding
 Fertilizer use in pattern grasses
 Introduction of high yielding perennial grasses
and their strains
 Silvipasture
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Reclamation of wastelands

10. Stony wastelands
 Growing fruit trees viz., mango
(Mangefera indica) tamarind (Tamarindus indica)
and Jamun (Syzygium jambolanum)
Shifting cultivation area
 Reclaimed easily by addition of organic manures
and fertilizers that are lacking in the soil,
followed by suitable crop rotation
(legume crop for fixing the atmospheric N)
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Reclamation of wastelands

11. Reclamation of saline soils
 Leaching / removal of salts and application of
green manures
 Formation of proper drainage system viz. deep
drains and open drains
 Afforestation of saline soils
 Formation of raised seed beds
 Recommend saline resistant crops
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Reclamation of wastelands

12. Alkali soils
 Application of gypsum
 Application of green manure
 Recommend resistant crops
 Afforestation
 Rehabilitation of water logged lands is:
 Drainage either surface or sub-surface
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Reclamation of wastelands

13. Degraded forest lands
 The degraded forest could be rehabilitated by
protecting theses lands from increasing biotic
activities like cutting of trees, mining, and
control of degrading factors like sheet, rill and
gully erosion by contour furrows, contour
bunding and trenching etc.
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Reclamation of wastelands

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