Land and water are the main natural resources vital for agricultural production system. About one-third of cultivated land is irrigated and remaining 85 million ha is under rainfed cultivation in the country. Also about 146 million ha is degraded land needing reclamation/management for optimal productive use. The increasing human population is the main cause for reduced availability of land.

Study on qualitative performance of different soil and water conservation measures was carried during 2004-05 in Daregaon watershed, which is located in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state. Soil and water conservation structure namely continuous contour trenches, loose boulder structures, earthen nala bund and cement nala bund respectively were evaluated.

Rainwater harvesting is an age-old practice in India. It is a process of collection of runoff from treated or untreated land surfaces/catchments or rooftops and storing it in an open farm pond or closed water tanks/ reservoirs or in situ moisture strorage in the soil itself.

Kosi, the river of sorrow of Bihar, is in the news. The news is really bad. As long expected by the professinals, embankment has breached. Fifty thousand persons in Nepal and 2.5 million in Bihar are experiencing the fury of the Kosi flood. Embankments are no solution to the flood problem.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), through its multi-disciplinary research programmes had identified several viable alternative land use models and land management practices that can be introduced in areas under shifting cultivation.

Shivalik foothills in Himachal Pradesh are marked by frequent crop failures due to erratic rainfall, lack of irrigation facilities, serious soil erosion problem, unemployment and poverty. During the earlier days the villages of the region had their own ponds, which served the society. Over the period of time bond of the villagers over such common property is getting weak.

The solution to the decline of water resources is today often addressed to the revival of community traditions and people's participation in water management.

Experiments were conducted in the farmers' field on the loamy soil in coastal Orissa for two consecutive years (2005-07), to evaluate the economic feasibility of drip irrigation with black LDPE mulch in a cashew crop planted during July 2000. Actual evapotranspiration for cashew crop was estimated using Pan Evaporation method.

The Southern part of Banswara district of Rajasthan state is mostly dominated by tribal populations. The socio-economic conditions of the tribals are pathetic by all standards. Even though the average rainfall is very good, the region is always under influence of drought. This mainly due to the lack of management, inadequate knowledge and inadvertence of water conservation pratices.

Land is finite while its needs are infinite. Following China's example of industrial clusters, strategically paced along the coastal regions, state governments in India have planned to set up a large number of Special Economic Zones popularly referred to as SEZ. A special legislation, Special Economic Zones Act, was passed.

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