Westelands diagnosis and treatment

The Indian economic scenario continues to be significantly dominated by Agriculture. More than one-third of the population comprising of 24.71 crores (37.55%) and also more than two thirds (66.52%) of the working population depend on it for subsistence. The tremendous pace of population growth has al ready outstripped the agricultural productivity.[Land is a fixed entity and the per capita available cultivable land has recorded la declining trend, from 0.48 hectare in 1951 to 0.26 hectare in 1981, which in itself is an outrageously insignificant measure by any standards. The threatening estimate of 1,000 million Indians by the turn of the century, consequently reckons for the basic need for survival-food. (The challenge of this rapid population growth culminates into the demand for increased agricultural production which may be achieved by intensive and extensive agricultural production through organized sectoral and/or in tegrated strategies of multiple cropping, crop combination pat terns and high yielding methodologies. Such methods, however, would reach, an ultimate stagnation point in future. Alternatively, increased agricultural production may be net through the subsequent 'expansion of the physically limited land resources by reclaiming wastelands for cultivation purposes.]

With the above backdrop, the present book attempts to un derstand the problems of wastelands through an indepth dignos tic analysis and to suggest suitable ways and means of treatment of such lands. The invited papers are incorporated in the book in a definite array to cover five important aspects of 'Wastelands: Diagnosis and Treatment, Viz., diagnosis, classifi cation, treatment, economics and planning strategies of wastelands' development.
Diagnosis and Distribution of Wastelands, forming section 1 of the book, deals with the conceptual and definitional frame work of identification, diagnosis, classification, estimates and distribution pattern of wastelands and their analysis through various techniques.