Agriculture (NMSA)
B. Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) – India
7.33 Natural Resource Management (NRM) Division is implementing mainly two Central
Sector Schemes namely, Soil and Land Use
Survey of India (SLUSI) and Soil Conservation Training Centre, Damodar Valley Corporation, Hazaribagh. The major mandates of Division are as under:-
• Technical input on soil & water conservation interventions for prevention of soil erosion & land degradation under various programmes/
schemes of DAC&FW;
• Formulation of strategies, policies and programmes to address issues of degraded land, appropriate measures to combat adverse impact of such degradation on agricultural production;
• Reclamation & development of problem lands affected by alkalinity, salinity and acidity;
• Conducting various types of soil survey to provide scientific database on soil and land uses for planning & implementation of various land based interventions;
• Development of training and capacity of officials working in various States for soil and water conservation & management.
7.34 Schemes/Programmes: The details of the Schemes and Externally Aided Programmes being implemented by NRM Division are given in the succeeding paragraphs.
(A) Central Sector Schemes:
a) Central Sector Scheme of Soil and Land Use Survey of India (SLUSI):
Soil and Land Use Survey of India (SLUSI) 1. About SLUSI
7.35 Soil and Land Use Survey of India (SLUSI) governs and monitors all its activities from Head Quarter office situated at Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) campus, New Delhi.
After its inception in 1958, it carried out various types of soil survey at different scales to provide scientific input to policy makers, planners and implementing agencies for various agricultural developmental programs.
Watershed being the main hydrological entity for all soil and water conservation activities, SLUSI has generated microwatershed ATLAS of all the States/Union Territories of the country except Jammu & Kashmir got digital.
An advance technology of Remote Sensing &
Geographical Information System (RS &GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) are being used to generate site specific soil and land information by its seven regional centres located at Noida, Ranchi, Kolkata, Nagpur, Bengaluru, hyderabad and Ahmedabad. It has also established a Remote Sensing Centre (RSC) for leveraging applications of advanced technologies in soil survey programmes.
7.36 The principal activity is the characterization of soils, soil properties, soil suitability for agriculture and presenting the locational information with their spatial extent
i.e. watershed of designated area/district etc.
The generated information is instrumental in outlining the potential agricultural areas for the development, planning and management
based technical advice on sustainable Land Management and organizes trainings for Capacity building for the officials/officers of state user departments on mapping &
management of micro-watersheds using Space Technology along with uses of database generated by SLUSI. The output of the survey is utilized both by Central and State Governments towards formulation of soil and water conservation working plans.
SLUSI has also generated database at Rapid Reconnaissance level for 239.37 million ha in the country.
7.37 In view of launching of National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) by Department of Agriculture, Cooperation&
Farmers Welfare organization has revised its mandate with special reference to Soil Health Management activities by generating detailed scientific database for planning and implementation of soil and water conservation and soil health management activities and for sustainable landuse plan on micro-watershed basis on 1:10 K scale.
7.38 Inventory of Scientific Detailed Soil Resources database acquired through ground truthing using high Resolution Satellite data (LISS-IV), field survey comprises of profile study & soil analysis and finalization of maps in GIS to facilitate adoption of location and soil specific crop management practices for sustainable land management plan The utility of data is enhanced by interpreting area for soil and land capability, irrigability and hydrological soil grouping etc. The database on land and soil characteristics through extensive field level scientific surveys is also helpful in Soil Health Management (SHM) through identification and mapping of degraded lands either due to Salinity/Alkalinity/Acidity or soil erosion with their intensity by suggesting reclamation / management plan.
7.39 SLUSI also provides technical support to
National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) by making available generated maps and reports essentially required for integrated watershed development planning, management and monitoring of natural resources to State Governments.
7.40 Training programs are organized by all centres of SLUSI in the states under their jurisdiction for capacity building and updating knowledge of officers of State Governments involved in different developmental programs viz. Integrated Watershed Management Program (IWMP), agriculture, horticulture, forestry, soil & water conservations and rural development etc.
Soil health Card data validation:
7.41 Soil & Land Use Survey of India (SLUSI) has been assigned the work of Soil Health Card data validation project for all the States of the Country. The organization has completed soil samples collection of 10 states (till Dec.
2017) and the rest of the states are under the progress. Similarly, the analysis of collected soil samples for their 12 parameters (pH, EC, O.C., N, P, K, S, B, Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn) for three states i.e Karnataka, Maharashtra & Gujarat have been completed and results submitted to the Ministry. The analysis of rest of the states is under process.
Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojna (PMKSY)
7.42 SLUSI is involved in completed irrigation projects in command areas under PMKSY. The prganisation will coordinate & hand hold with State Irrigation department, State Agricultual University, State Agriculture department of the concerned projects for planning and monitoring of the projects. Presently, the seven irrigation projects are Maddigedda (Andhra Pradesh), warna (Maharashtra), Dongargaon (Maharashtra), Upper Indravati (Odisha), Rukura-Tribal (Odisha), Extension of
Kandi canal Stage 2 (Punjab), Rehabilitation of 1st Patiala Feeder & Kotla Branch (Punjab) for preparation of crop plan.