8 Land Resource: Distribution, Livelihood & Scarcity Concerns

Dr Soma Sarkar

Learning Objectives:

After studying this unit you should be able to:

• Understand the Concept and importance of Land Resource Understand Land utilization
• Establish Relationship between Land and people LanduseLandcover status in India

Keywords

    Land resource, Land use / Land cover, Population, land qualitiy

8.1 Concept

Land is a fundamental natural asset for the survival and success of mankind and for the support of every earthbound biological community. Land resources are finite (northern hemisphere that covers the land area of 68% and southern hemisphere covers the area of 32%), while human wants are infinite. Land is not only required for agriculture, factories are also established on it. The vast tracts of land are used as grazing field, forests grow on it and roads and railway lines are built on its surface. Land with plain surface containing fertile land is very useful for the cultivation. According to a report by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO/UNEP), 1997“Land Resource refers to a delineable area of the Earth’s terrestrial surface, encompassing all features of the biosphere immediately above or below this surface, including those of the near-surface climate, the soil and the terrain forms, the surface hydrology (including shallow lakes, rivers, marshes and swamps), the near surface sedimentary layers, associated groundwater and geo-hydrological reserve, the plant and animal populations, the human settlement pattern and physical results of past and present human activity”.

Do you know?

India ranks 7th in the world having the area of 32.87 crore hectares, accounts only 2.4% of total land mass in world. It supports and sustain 16.2 % of the world population.

8.2 Importance of land resource

The fundamental significance of land in supporting human and other earthly biological systems can be summarized as:

A storehouse of wealth for people, community, or a group.

Production of sustenance, fiber or other biotic materials for human utilize.

    Provision of natural environments for plants, creatures and small scale life forms.

Co-determinant in the worldwide vitality adjust and the worldwide hydrological cycle, which gives both a source and a sink for nursery gasses.

Regulation of the capacity and stream of surface water and groundwater. Storehouse of minerals and crude materials for human utilize.

A cushion, channel or modifier for substance poisons/ chemical pollution. Provision of physical space for settlements, industry and diversion.

Storage and security of proof from the historical or pre-chronicled record (fossils, confirmation of past atmospheres, archeological remains, and so forth.)

Enabling or hampering development of creatures, plants and individuals between one region and another.

8.3 Land utilization

As per FAO, “Land utilization is a major kind of land use,specifically, major subdivision of rural land use, such as rainfed agriculture, irrigated agriculture, grassland, forestry, or recreation. Major kinds of land use are usually considered in land evaluation studies of a qualitative or reconnaissance nature….A land utilization type is a kind of land use described or defined in a degree of detail greater than that of a major kind of land use. In detailed or quantitative land evaluation studies, the kinds of land use considered will usually consist of land utilization types. They are described with as much detail and precision as the purpose requires. Thus land utilization typos are not a categorical level in a classification of land use, but refer to any defined use below the level of the major kind of land use.”

“Land use is influenced by economic, cultural, political, historical and land-tenure factors at multiple scales. Land cover, on the other hand, is one of the many biophysical attributes of the land that affect how ecosystems function” (Turner et al., 1995). “Land use referred to as man’s activities and the various uses which are carried on Land. Land cover is referred to as natural vegetation, water bodies, rock/soil, artificial cover and others resulting due to land transformation. Since both land use/land cover are closely related and are not mutually exclusive they are interchangeable as the former is inferred based on the land cover and on the contextual evidence.”

Major kind of land use &utilization types

The landuse depends upon bothnatural factors like topography, soil and climate, andman-made factors such as the period of occupation of the area,population density, land tenure, and technological advancement of the people.Various land utilization types is often a major character of rural places, for examplesrain-fed agriculture, irrigated farm lands, grassland, plantation, forestry, or recreational.

Therefore for land utilization classification one has to consider various set of methodical specifications in a given physical and socio- economic settings. According to FAO, the attributes of land utilization types should include following data or assumptions on:“

i. Produce, including goods (e.g. crops, livestock timber), services (e.g. recreational facilities) or other benefits (e.g. wildlife conservation); ii. Market orientation, including whether towards subsistence or commercial production;

iii. Capital intensity; iv. Labour intensity; v. Power sources (e.g. man’s labour, draught animal’s machinery using fuels); vi. Technical knowledge and attitudes of land users;

vii. Technology employed (e.g. implements and machinery, fertilizers, livestock breeds, farm transport, methods of timber felling); viii. Infrastructure requirements (e.g. sawmills, tat factories, agricultural advisory services); ix. Size and structure of land holdings, including whether consolidated or fragmented; and x. Land tenancy, the legal or customary manner in which rights to land are believed, by individuals or groups income levels, expressed per capita, per unit of production (e.g. farm) or per unit area.”

On the basis of land utilization land can be classified in numerous types. The examples given below are some types developed on the basis of above assumptions:

1. On freehold farms of 5-10 ha, rain-fed annual cropping based on mustard with subsistence rice, by smallholders with traditional and high labour intensity farming methods,

    2.  Agricultureakin to above in all respect,but farm size of 250-600 ha operated on a community basis.

3. Commercialand extensive methods (high capital investment and higher level of automation) of production of wheat on large track of farms, and Land use classification can also be done on the basis of number of uses a particular plot of land takes place in terms of multiple and compound uses. FAO has further defined it in following ways:

“A multiple land useoperations consists of more than one kind of use simultaneously undertaken on the same area of land, each use having its own inputs, requirements and produce. An example is a timber plantation used simultaneously as a recreational area; and …..A multifarious land utilization involve more than one kind of use undertaken on areas of land which for appraisal purposes treated as a single unit. The different kinds of usage may occur in time sequence (e.g. as in crop rotation) or concurrently on different areas of land within the same organizational unit. Mixed farming involves both arable land use and grazing for example.” Similarly, classification on the basis of land’s physical and chemical characteristics which is related toland qualities can also be done.

A land characteristic is an element, which can be estimated or measured. For examplesangle of the slope,precipitation, soil texture, moisture capacity, vegetation biomass etc. “Land mapping units determined by resource surveys which are normally described in terms of land characteristics….”

The quality of land have multidimensional trait of land which acts in a discrete way, effects on the appropriateness of land for a particular sort of land utilize. Land qualities might be verbalized in both optimistic and negative way. Cases can be sited takes after are wetness level, disintegration resistance, flooding risk, nutritive estimation of fields, accessibility. Thorough information are existing under land qualities which may likewise be utilized.

Further it is pertinent to portray the disintegration resistance which influences the expenditure towards soil maintenance works required for arable utilize, while the nutritive estimation of grasses influences the profitability of land under ranching.

Land qualities have been described and classified by FAO under following criteria’s:

“A. Land Qualities which are related to productivity from crops or from other plant growth: Crop yields (a resultant of many qualities listed below); Availability of moisture; Availability of nutrition; Availability of oxygen in the root zone; Workability of the land (ease of cultivation); Salinity or alkalinity; Resistance to soil erosion; Drying periods for ripening of crops.

B. Land qualities related to domestic animal productivity: Potential productivity of grazing land (a resultant of many qualities listed under A.)Climatic hardships affecting animals; Endemic pests and diseases; Nutritive value of grazing land; Land Qualities Related to forest productivity.

C. The listed qualities may refer to natural forests, forestry plantations, or both: Mean annual additions of timber species (a resultant of many qualities listed under A.); Pests and diseases; and Fire hazard.

D. Land Qualities related to management and inputs: The qualities listed refers to an arable use, animal production or forestry; Terrain factors affecting mechanization (traffic ability); Size of potential management units (e.g. forest blocks, farms, fields); and Locational relation to markets and to supplies of inputs….”

8.4 The basic relationship: Land, population and management strategies

At the point when population increments in a given place, the expanded demand on resources can induce stress and thus leads todegradation. In any case, if enhanced management strategies / administration techniques are accessible, either the way of life may rise or more individuals can be sustained at a similar standard of living without compromising the normal resource base. This follows anadequate supply of land with reasonable quality and suitable production. According to “The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture”,FAO , 2011 report,

“Land and water resources are central to agriculture and rural development, and are intrinsically linked to global challenges of food insecurity and poverty, climate change adaptation and mitigation, as well as degradation and depletion of natural resources that affect the livelihoods of millions of rural people across the world. Current projections indicate that world population will increase from 6.9 billion people today to 9.1 billion in 2050. In addition, economic progress, notably in the emerging countries, translates into increased demand for food and diversified diets. World food demand will surge as a result, and it is projected that food production will increase by 70 percent in the world and by 100 percent in the developing countries. Yet both land and water resources, the basis of our food production, are finite and already under heavy stress, and future agricultural production will need to be more productive and more sustainable at the same time.”

Figure 1Pressure-state-response framework (FAO)

As per FAO, “under this framework, Pressure (the causative factors) refers to the driving forces exerted on land by human activities and their impact on the status of land quality; the effects of an expanding or diminishing animal population, for example in a game park; environmental changes unrelated to terrestrial factors, such as the sun spot cycle. State characterizes the type, degree, spatial extent and rate of change of vegetation, soils, nutrients and water – comparable to the GLASOD assessment (paper on Global and Regional Databases for Development of State Land Quality Indicators: the SOTER and GLASOD Approach). Response characterizes the conscious efforts by land users and governments to remedy any degradational change.”

8.4.1 Land resources under pressure

Currently, 16 percent of arable land is degraded and the percentage is increasing (FAO, 1997). Traditional systems of land management are either breach down or are no longer appropriate. To replace or manage them, technology is not always available.

a.  Availability of land

FAO evaluates that a total area of around 2.5 thousand million ha of land in the developing countries has included potential for rain-fed farming. “The two-thirds of the land are rated as having significant constraints due to topography or soil conditions, while not all of this land is available for agricultural production (Alexandros, 1995)”. However, fertile land is not equitably disseminated either between nations or inside nations, and fluctuating changes in access to land is in respect to populace need and more critical to the world totals.Rivalry for land among various utilizations has turned out to be intense and clashing. This opposition is frequently most clear in the Peri-urban fringe, where the unending weights of urban extension competes farming ventures and with recreational needs.Universally, factors related with extensive scale affect incorporates biophysical impacts, for example, varieties in atmosphere, regular or human-initiated calamities, and also financial viewpoints, for example, exchange advancement, the globalization of business sectors, decentralization of basic leadership, privatization triggers the extending gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots”.

b. Pressure of population

Progression in total population in the course of recent years has been coordinated by a relative increment in the urban populace to the loss of the rural population. The effect of this pattern is two-fold. From one perspective, migration of individuals to the urban communities may diminish the total pressure on farming while at the same time stimulating the market for makers/producers. Then again, the creation for the essential items, for example, food, fiber and fuel delivered from a lessening land region by a decreasing relative populace, while urban development diminishes the aggregate land accessible for agriculture.

8.5 Landuse/landcover in India: Changing status

India is bestowed with resources serving the necessities of sustenance of around a billion population, and varied environmental functions. Since independence the population has expanded by 284% (363 to 1033 Million) and grain production by 386% (51 to 196 Million Ton). The nation has 150 Million ha of agricultural land territory, and around 24% GDP is met from the agriculture. The loss of woodland cover in India for the period between 1990 and 2000 is 380.89 km2 every year (FAO, 2000). At present, with the increasing population pressure, low man-land ratio, and swelling land dilapidation, the need for optimum utilization of land assumes much greater relevance.Table1 suggests that between 2000 and 2013, the land not available for cultivation has increased between the periods.

Table1: Variation in LULC of India between 2000 and 2013

Land resource appraisal, on various elements working at several spatial and time scales, must be created for measuring LULC changes. In the previous couple of decades there is change in land utilize, on account of extension of mining zones, augment in development of dams, industrialization, urbanization and so forth.They influence the regions as an outer variables. Inward changes incorporates shifting farming zones, selective logging because of human pressure on timberland assets, and natural habitat loss of wildlife because of lessening in the woods.

In India,studies so far have been conducted on LULC change is scattered particularly in regions like Himalayas,Western and Eastern Ghats, and Northeastern states. Menon and Bawa (1998) “have estimated the rate of deforestation in the Western Ghats to be 0.57% annually during the period 1920-1990”. Prasad et al. (1998) have assessed “0.90% annual decline in natural forest cover in Kerala for the period 1961-1988”. “Deforestation has been particularly intensive in the southern Western Ghats, which lost a quarter of its forest cover between 1973 and 1995” (Jhaet al., 2000). “The data from Agastyamalai region, Western Ghats indicating a five-fold increase in forest loss from the periods 1920-1960 to 1960-1990, also suggest that the rates may be increasing” (Ramesh et al., 1997).

Over the past decades, Arunachal Pradesh has faced in the large-scale forest cover loss. It has also caused fragmentation of the forested habitat into numerous isolated patches and the land cover change(Nair, 1991;Menon and Bawa, 1998; Jha et al., 2000). “Attempt to model vegetation and land cover particularly in Indian region e.g., forest cover change at landscape scale” (Menon and Bawa, 1998; Giriraj, 2005; Pontius and Spencer, 2005), “as a direct function of socio-economic changes, land use patterns with biogeophysical characteristics to predict areas most susceptible to future deforestation and biodiversity loss”. Using satellite data (IRS LISS III),IIRS and NRSA prepared Land use/ Land cover map for entire Western Ghats of India on 1:250,000 scale to detectmainzones of disturbances.(IIRS-NRSA, 2002).

The accessibility of timely and accuratedata on the status and trends of land resources, are crucial for decision-making by farmers and multilateral governments. (FAO, 2017)

Summary:

Land is a fundamental resource for the survival and success of mankind, and for the support of every earthbound biological community.

Land use referred to as man’s activities and the various uses which are carried on Land. And on the basis of land utilization land can be classified in numerous types.

In India since independence the population has expanded by 284% (363 to 1033 Million) and sustenance grain production by 386% (51 to 196 Million Ton).

At present, with the increasing population pressure, low man-land ratio, and swelling land degradation, the need for optimum utilization of land assumes much greater relevance.

References

• Land Resources and People: Dependence and Interaction. (n.d.). RetrievedOctober13.2016,from http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/x3810e/x3810e04.htm
• Max Roser and Hannah   Ritchie (2017) Yields and Land Use inAgriculture. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from:
• https://ourworldindata.org/yields-and-land-use-in-agriculture/ [Online Resource]
• Mapping habitable universe: Planetary Habitability Laboratory, University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo.
• Singh, V.B., Sema, K.A. and Alila, P. (2006) Horticulture for Sustainable Income and Environment Protection.
• Shukla, S.P. (2006) Strategy for Integrated Development of Arunachal Pradesh