OPERATIONALISING SOIL CONSERVATION POLICIES AND PROJECTS – THE CHALLENGING PROBLEMS AHEAD

Abstract

There is a general opinion that there is much more to be understood about the technical aspects of soil erosion and about the soil conservation techniques. However, there is an even greater challenge in understanding the non-technical aspects associated with it. Soil conservation methods have developed in a phased manner over the period of time through research and case studies. During the first half of this century, emphasis was laid mainly on the traditional North-American style of conservation, involving manipulation of the land to control surface run-off by using graded channel terraces. In the 1950s many agronomic practices were also developed to supplement the traditional method. However, research carried out during the 1970s in many countries and at international research centres like ICRISAT and IITA, made workers and scientists to think that major modification were necessary in this direction. To achieve this, the three basic approaches namely, soil conservation is a good thing, co-operative programs, and financial incentives were made use of to find solutions to soil conservation programs. Various combinations of the above three elements were also tried. In parallel with the realisation in the seventies that new technical solutions are required, there was a parallel realisation that putting the concepts into operation is extremely difficult and that the problem of operationalisation of soil conservation schemes is widespread. The problem actually arises from a complex interaction between a large number of mutually interactive factors, namely, political, social, and economic. The basic political aspects include political policy, state land use and state forests, land allocation and legislation. Social aspects include ownership and tenure of land, fragmentation of land holding, social significance of cattle and reluctance to move and to change. Economic constraints include the degree of risk, the time scale of soil conservation, and the beneficiary and the payee. A great deal of work is therefore required to be done since there is now available a much better base. This is inevitable because of the fact that the decision-makers need more reliable evidence on which to make their judgements and to frame future policies. This paper therefore aims at analysing the above mentioned mutually interactive non-technical aspects.