Wastelands development and their utilization

It is now widely recognised that if the human race has to survive on this planet, the so-called "Wastelands" dotting the globe would need intensive scientific management for increasing their production potentials. Today's wastelands must be tomorrow's granaries or foraging meadows. The priority, then, would be to lay emphasis on the fact that we cannot afford to create any more wastelands through unscientific exploitation of the natural resources. Appropriate measures for the reclamation of the existing wastelands should be adopted concurrently.

The problem of wastelands development in India has been debated for some time and the Central Government's concern in this regard has found expression in the creation of the National Wastelands Development Board sometime back. Suddenly, the country has awoke to the dire necessity of making our wastelands produce. A number of organizations and scientists, who have been working in this field, had shared their experiences in a National seminar on Wastelands Development and their Improvement, held at CAZRI, Jodhpur during December, 1986. This publication presents the viewpoints of those specialists from diverse fields in the hope that a synthetic approach solving to location specific problems of wastelands development may emerge.