Q.4. What are the causes of land use change and explain land degradation.
Ans. Introduction: Land is a very important resource needed for food production, poultry farming, housing construction of dams and for the ever growing industrial sector. The opportunity cost of using land is loss of forest land, grassland or aquatic ecosystems. It is therefore of grave importance for the Government to frame a fair land use policy.
Causes for change in land use:
(i) Intensive Agriculture: Due to growing population, land utilization for producing food has increased drastically, taking away opportunities for land to be used for other purposes. Land-hunger' is the greed of having to use land for agricultural purposes which is ever increasing.
(ii) Industrialization: Industries have polluted the quality of land and soil which is essential in ensuring productivity of growth of forests and other ecosystems, Natural wetlands are being used for purposes of building industries, urban settlements etc.
(iii) Urbanisation: Building of cities for human settlement came at the cost of degrading forests and other ecosystems. This has led to wide spread damage to the environment.
(iv) Land Degradation: Land degradation is a process in which the value, quality and productivity of land is affected by a combination of human-induced processes. It is viewed as any change or disturbance to the land perceived to be undesirable.
Causes of Land Degradation:
(i) Intensive agriculture: When soil is used more rapidly for agriculture purposes, the quality of land starts degrading.
(ii) Over-irrigation: Over irrigation of land affects the nature of soil type as it leads to salinization as evaporation for water results in more salt remains in the soil.
(iii) Use of Fertilizers: Excessive use of fertilizers has resulted in more chemicals being induced in the ground, thus hampering the original soil quality.
Comments
Post a Comment