Development and use of indicators in assessing sustain ability of soil and water resources – A case study in the cotton-wheat system of Northern India

Degradation of soil and water resources has emerged as one of the major sustainability issues in the cotton-wheat system of northern India. It also accounts for the plateauing of productivity of the system to an extent. The present paper reports the development of a few soil and water sustainability indicators and also presents the results of using the same in assessing the sustainability of the aforesaid resources in the system. Results indicate perching of water table of shallow wells due to lateral movement of canal water and lowering of water table in tube-wells of deep category due to over exploitation of ground water; emergence of deficiencies of P and Zn and excess and lower applications of nitrogenous and phosphatic fertilizers, respectively.