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Reclamation of Sodic Soils in India: An Economic Impact Assessment

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Bioremediation of Salt Affected Soils: An Indian Perspective

Abstract

Soil sodicity is a major problem in arid and semiarid regions of Indo-Gangetic plains in India. A large proportion of sodicity-affected soils in Indo-Gangetic areas occur on land inhibited by resource-poor small farmers. Several efforts have been made by central and state governments to check soil degradation and increase agricultural productivity through sodic land reclamation programmes. Currently, India is losing annually around 11 million Mg of farm production valued at ₹150 billion from sodic soils. The severity of sodicity problem received the attention of policy makers and development agencies. A significant advancement in the sodic land reclamation technology has been made in India to reclaim the degraded sodic soils and to enhance crop productivity for improving farm income of the farmers. The successful application of soil reclamation technologies at the farmer’s fields has encouraged many states to launch ambitious programmes of land reclamation through land reclamation and development corporations by providing necessary inputs to augment the food and livelihood security of resource-poor farmers. Over the past few decades, with the support of the World Bank, European Union and other developmental agencies, India has reclaimed 1.95 Mha sodic soils, which contributed substantially to improve the economic conditions of millions of small farmers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, India

    K. Thimmappa & R. Raju

  2. ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Regional Research Station, Lucknow, India

    Y. P. Singh

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  1. K. Thimmappa
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  2. Y. P. Singh
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  3. R. Raju
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Regional Research Station, ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Sanjay Arora

  2. Regional Research Station, ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Atul K. Singh

  3. Regional Research Station, ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Y.P. Singh

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Thimmappa, K., Singh, Y.P., Raju, R. (2017). Reclamation of Sodic Soils in India: An Economic Impact Assessment. In: Arora, S., Singh, A., Singh, Y. (eds) Bioremediation of Salt Affected Soils: An Indian Perspective. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48257-6_13

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