Farm & Forest Can Develop Together According To Scientists
Posted by Unknown in Agriculture and Farming, Fertility of Land, Forest, India, Research and Studies, Soil Issue, Soil Management, Sustainable Agriculture on Sunday 27 January 2013
Agriculture
and forest can exist in harmony with each other and sustainable
development too can take place provided things are planned in that
manner.
Unfortunately,
lack of coherent and sustainable planning, a result of absence of a
'land use policy' in the country, is not allowing that to happen. As
along as human beings do not break the balance and interfere with
ecology, agriculture and forest need not be in conflict with each other.
This was the opinion of almost every speaker at the inaugural programme of a two-day brainstorming session on 'Agriculture and Forest: Conflicting Domains or Symbiotic Paradigm' organized by the National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning (NBSS&LUP) on Tuesday.
S
M Virmani, former chief scientist of International Crop Research
Institute of Semi-Arid Tropics, Hyderabad, said that forest was capable
of giving every thing human beings could ask for including shelter,
food, and medicines but it was our greed that was leading to a situation
of conflict. Giving examples of gradual disappearance of sparrow from
urban ecology and tigers from forests, he said these were manmade
disasters. The man-animal conflict was an example of man encroaching
upon tiger's territory rather than tiger encroaching on human land. He
warned that unless we traced the causes of this conflict. the required
damage control was not possible.
A
K Joshi, principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF), Maharashtra,
spoke about the nature and conflict between people, animal, forest and
agriculture activities and also mentioned the importance of symbiosis of
these activities.
He also spoke about the livelihood opportunities through ecotourism in the tribal belts.
Ram
Prasad, ex-PCCF Madhya Pradesh, explained the role of water management
through forest for agriculture purpose and importance of forest planning
for watershed management to provide maximum benefits to farmers in the
lower reaches. Forest and agriculture both were land based, occupying a
continuum on the landscape and their co-existence was necessary for
sustainable livelihood in the tribal areas, he said.
He
also mentioned that agriculture was the main beneficiary of forest
ecosystem, conservation of forest could provide satisfaction provided
policies were formulated to address specific issues, he added.
Dipak
Sarkar, NBBS&LUP director, stressed on the role of forests in
carbon storage as trees were the biggest source of carbon sequestration.
He pointed out that cutting of forests led to huge soil erosion which
had a devastating effect on both forest ecosystem as well as human life.
Ashok
Sharma, chief general manager of Forest Development Corporation of
Maharashtra, traced the root cause of various problems to improper
policies. He categorically stated that disregarding scientific
principles of management could eventually lead to vegetation anarchy
both in forestry and agriculture. He called for a comprehensive
landscape management policy.
Arun
Chaturvedi, principal scientist and head of land use planning at
NBBS&LUP, spoke on symbiosis of agriculture and forests. He observed
that climate change would affect rainfed agriculture and increase
pressure on the forests.
He stressed on the need for creating awareness among farmers about value of non-timber forest produce.
He
said in erstwhile forested areas, it was not possible to sustain a
family of even 4-5 persons on one or two hectare of land. The income
from agriculture needed to be supplemented with additional income from
forest produce or other ancillary activities like poultry, pisciculture
small ruminant animals etc.
Expert View
*
Since forests are biggest source of carbon-dioxide sequestration,
conscious efforts should be done to increase forest cover without
displacing forest dwellers
* Efforts must be made to minimize global warming caused through agriculture
* Agriculture growth should shift from horizontal to vertical
* Identify faults in existing forest and agriculture development processes and make efforts to rectify them
* Evolve better and scientific policies of land use for sustainable forest and agriculture development
* Develop a land use policy for country
* Increase per hectare productivity of agriculture and diversify agriculture
Times of India
