Singh, DilipKUMAR, ASHOK2020-12-182020-12-182020Kumar A. And Singh D.https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810156892Land and Environmental Suitability Evaluation for Sustainable Agricultural Land Use Planning of Buraka Micro-watershed in Mewat Region of HaryanaThe study was carried out in the economically backward and minority community dominated Buraka micro-watershed area of Taoru block in Mewat Region of Haryana in the two consecutive years of 2017 and 2018. The micro-watershed with an area of 542.4 ha was delineated into seven LMUs. Out of them, five LMUs namely LMU2, LMU3, LMU4, LMU5 and LMU6 belonged to irrigated ecosystem while LMU1 and LMU7 to rainfed ecosystem. LMU5 and LMU6 reported to have less constraint for agriculture and other land uses as compared to LMU1. Majority of the micro-watershed area had loamy sand texture soils and also soil pH in the range of 6.8 to 8.0. Average values i.e., 0.18 per cent revealed that soil organic carbon status was low to very low in most of the soils while available nitrogen and phosphorus with their respective values149.1kg ha-1 and 9.2 kg ha-1 indicated low status whereas available potassium value 142.9 kg ha-1 indicated medium status. Land suitability evaluation revealed that maximum area i.e., 40.9 per cent comes under LCC III. Soil suitability evaluation revealed that LMU1 found to be permanently not suitable (N2) for growing any crops while, LMU 5 found to be highly suitable (S1) for pearl millet, pigeon pea, cluster bean, sesame, mustard and potato and moderately suitable (S2) for sorghum, maize and cotton, wheat, barley and gram in terms of current soil suitability (CS) and potential soil suitability (PS). Household socio-economic survey was conducted in the cultivated LMUs using stratified random sampling technique. Results of the socio-economic survey revealed that majority of the farmers belong to marginal and small landholding categories. Farming was dominant occupation and mostly practiced by the respondent farmers belonging to the age group of 41-50 years (34.85%) followed by 51-60 years age group (25.76%). Male, female, and total literacy rate recorded in the large holdings of surveyed households was high i.e., 62.17, 49.70 and 55.94 per cent, respectively. Resource endowments status revealed that 77.3 * Ph.D. Scholar ** Professor & Head, Department of Agronomy, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, MPUAT, Udaipur -313001 per cent households owned land, 92.4 per cent livestock, 65.2 per cent tube-wells and 50.0 per cent electric motors whereas 22.7 per cent owned tractors. Large holdings in LMU5 recorded highest PEY i.e., 7.9 t ha-1 and 8.1t ha-1, under pearl millet-wheat and pearl millet-mustard cropping systems, respectively besides, high pearl millet, wheat and mustard yield i.e., 2.5 t ha-1, 4.5 t ha-1 and 2.1 t ha-1, respectively. Energy ratio or efficiency was also observed to be highest under large holdings of LMU5 in case of pearl millet i.e., 12.2 and lowest i.e., 7.4 in wheat. Besides, large holdings of LMU5 recorded high energy efficiency i.e., 10.9 under pearl millet-mustard system compared to relatively low values i.e., 9.8 of pearl millet-wheat system. Carbon efficiency found to be high under large holdings of LMU5 and was highest in pearl millet (14.9) followed by pearl millet-mustard system (12.5). Economic efficiency of pearl millet revealed high net return i.e., 33548 ha-1 and high B C ratio i.e., 1.50 in large holdings of LMU3. Wheat recorded highest net return i.e., 60975 ha-1 in large holdings of LMU5 and high B C ratio i.e., 2.28 in medium holdings of LMU3. Mustard recorded high net return i.e., 58588 ha-1 and B C ratio i.e., 2.47 in large holdings of LMU5. Large holdings of LMU5 recorded high net return i.e., 94429 ha-1 and B C ratio i.e., 1.87 in pearl millet-wheat system, and also high net return i.e., 92041 ha-1 and B C ratio i.e., 1.97 of pearl millet-mustard system. Beside crops, livestock also contributed in livelihood of the farmers, and it was observed that medium holdings of LMU3 recorded highest pooled net monthly earning of 8036. Interventions were suggested to improve the production potential of each LMU viz., silvi-culture in the foothills and side slopes for LMU1 while integrated approaches such as INM, IPM and IWM beside soil conservation measures, HYVs and IFS model for other LMUs. Based on the integration of soil, socio-economic and suggested intervention approaches land use options were suggested for each LMU, which inter alia included agriculture, agri-silviculture, livestock and silvi-pasture for LMU2 while, agriculture, agri-horticulture and livestock for LMU3, LMU4, LMU5 and LMU6 to ensure optimum land use and livelihood security. Silvi-culture may be suggested as a land use options for LMU1 while, silvi-culture, silvi-pastures and livestock based options for LMU7. Thus, these options can be recommended for sustainable agricultural land use planning of Buraka micro-watershed for ensuring environmental health and livelihood security.EnglishThesis