Adverse effect of land degradation on farm productivity and income in north-west India

India has about 147 Mha degraded land. Soil salinity is one of the major land degradation problems in Indian agriculture which adversely affects the crop productivity in about 2.95 Mha area. Several studies reported the adverse effect of land degradation in India as well as in the world. This study has made as attempt to estimate production and monetary losses due to soil salinity in Haryana. Haryana state has 95765 ha saline area, out of which 77061 ha (80.47 per cent) is under cereals production. Rice (kharif season) and wheat (rabi season) crops occupies prominent place among the cereals production in Haryana. Hence these crops were assumed as representative crops and the damage due to salinity was assessed. The annual potential and actual losses per ha due to soil salinity was 10807 and 9314, respectively. The total monetary loss arises due to soil salinity in the project area is 3.67 million. In view of doubling farmers ’income by 2022, the policy makers has to give more emphasis on land degradation aspects particularly saline soil reclamation which is a major concern of worry by the salinity affected farmers of Haryana as well as India.