Checking soil erosion for improving crop production in the

sub-montaneous tract of Punjab.

Rajan Bhatt
Assistant Professor (Soil Scinece)
Krishi Vigyan Kendra,Kapurthala
rajanbhatt79@rediffmail.com
(98159-63858)

The state of Punjab, a food bowl of country covers only 1.5% of the total India’s area.
About 84% of the area of Punjab is already under agriculture. Punjab being one of th
most productive state contributes about 60% of the wheat and 40% of the rice in the
center’s stores annually. But with increasing population and increased food grain demand
it is quite difficult to further increase the agricultural land as increasing population
required land to live for. But the submontaneous tract of Punjab is an area has sufficient
production potential and which needs considerable attention for promoting its production.
The tract comprises about 10% of the total area of state which is mainly characterized by
the high intensive short duration monsoon rainfall, steeper slopes, undulating topography
and mismanagement and indiscriminate use of the natural resources. The farmers of the
tract are resource poor and the area being rainfed, the crop yields are below optimum.

Impact of Soil erosion on crop production

Soil erosion is one of the most dominating and severe damage causing among the various
problems faced by sustainable agriculture in the hilly areas. Simply defining soil erosion
is the detachment of the soil particles, their transportation from one place to another and
deposition elsewhere through water, wind and other factors. The major factors which
encourage detachment of soil particle are vegetation destruction, steeper slopes, high
intensive short duration rainfall etc. It is noted that during the last 40 years, nearly 1/3rd of
the world’s arable land has been lost by erosion and it continue to be lost at a rate of 10
million ha per year. In India, the problem is quite serious as about 18.5% of the total
erosion of the world occurs here. In India, there are some states which are under the
influence of the problem of the soil erosion and one such state is Punjab. The soils of sub-
montaneous tract of Punjab are coarse in texture and low in organic matter. All these
conditions favoured and promote the problem of the soil erosion mainly by water in the
summer monsoon months i.e. from July to September. The soil erosion accompanying
runoff is usually more serious. The fertile surface soil is taken away by the running water
causing loss of nutrients both native and applied. As erosion start from the loss of finer
fraction, hence depleted the soil nutrient supplying capacity and the loss of top soil
through erosion makes the land unsuitable and unproductive for crop production.

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Soil conservation techniques

There are very important techniques which a farmer can adopt to take the full advantage
of rain by minimizing the strength of the erosion causing agents. These are the soil and
water conservation techniques which are mainly used to protect the soil aggregates
against depletion or deteoration by man or some natural factor. The conservation of soil
and water is anti-erosion and anti- runoff approach for judicious use of the natural
resources. Some of the conservation measures detailed below can be extremely helpful
for the farmers in improving the production potential of the area by minimizing erosion
losses depending upon the degree and length of the slope and physical configuration of
the land.

1. Contour bunding: Contour bunds are the mechanical barriers built across the slope
with the aim to divert the excess runoff water and to retain the eroded soil. The area
between the two bunds gets leveled in due course of time by the process of the siltation.
This area should be planted with grasses for increasing their stability and further checks
the problem of soil erosion.

2. Contour cultivation: Contour cultivation reduces the runoff to a great extent. Thus
decreasing the loss of the nutrient to a significant extent by decreasing the soil loss.
Contour cultivation as well as furrows and ridges have been found useful in reducing the
runoff and nutrient losses from the soils in the area.

3. Bench terraces: Constructing falt beds across the slope of the sub-hills is termed as
bench terracing. It is usually practiced on slopes ranging from 15 to 33%. The width of
the terrace depends upon the slope of the area however their height should not more than
1 m. The bench terraces are important because they promote uniform distribution of soil
moisture, irrigation etc. and control soil erosion. Bench terrace can be constructed in
different ways but it is better to construct in the foothills of the steeper slopes for
agricultural crops where the soil depth is more than 1m.

4. Grassed water way: Grassed water ways are most effective in decreasing the speed of
the runoff water and thus reducing the erosive speed particularly on the rolling
topography. The runoff water moves down the slope with a high speed, carrying with it a
large amount of the soil. Further, grasses are well known for their soil binding
characteristics. These water ways are constructed on the natural pathway of the water.
The grassed water way can be very effectively used to control the problem of the gully
erosion in a catchments by diverting the runoff volume in the grassed waterway so that
the water is not available to go in the gully, which further stops the growth of the gully
head.

5. Water harvesting tanks: Water harvesting tanks or ponds can be excavated for
retaining excess runoff on the seasonal basis. They are generally constructed down the
slope so that the runoff water can be properly collected and utilized in the moisture stress
conditions. In the area construction of earthen dams or ponds have shown good results

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not only in providing supplemental irrigation for rabi crops in the rainfed conditions but
also drinking purposes for cattle.

6. Tillage: Low intensity tillage favors consolidation of soil through better structure,
infiltration and pore distribution. This imparts erosion resistant. A study of conventional
method of tillage in Maize with different modes of mulch application shown that soil loss
and runoff loss are greatly reduced with minimum tillage.

7. Agrofoestry: Agroforestry has become a useful land use system on slopes in the recent
past. Growing of trees along with agricultural crops satisfy multifarious needs of the
farmers. This will also helps in decreasing the speed of the runoff water and thus
decreased the erosive strength which further helps in decreasing the soil erosion losses.

8.Mulching: The treatment of mulching has been found to be quite effective in increasing
the soil moisture and in decreasing the soil loss and runoff losses and increased the maize
yield. Use of maize and wheat straw as mulch can be adopted in area.

9. Gully control: Gully control structures are installed in the gully mainly to reduce the
erosive speed of the running water so that gully can be stabilized. Check dams, chute
spillway and drop spillway are the main structures which are mainly employed to control
the growth of gully. Loose boulder check-dams perform well in gullies which do not
carry much runoff and it also helps in silt deposition, thereby helping the stabilization of
gully beds. There is also need to construct diversion bunds to divert surplus water to the
water harvesting structures through the grassed waterways.

10. Vegetative barriers: Plantation of few rows of grasses in closely spaced and grown
along the slope of the contour in order to curb the problem of erosion in the region acts as
vegetative barriers. These act as a barrier to check the erosive speed of the overland flow
and entrap the silt load behind them. Select local varieties of the grasses in order to
consider the importance of the availability and which can also be used for other purposes
like mulching etc.

Each conservation method may be used separately or in combination with other erosion –
control techniques depending upon the soil type, specific crop or pasture, as well as the
socioeconomic conditions of the farmers in the area. Adoption of these soil conservation
measures according to it’s suitability for different topographic and physiographic
landscape can surely result in checking soil erosion in the area. Also this will result in
maintaining soil fertility by checking loss of top fertile soil. Thus crop yield in the area
can be obtained to optimum and improve the socioeconomic condition of the resource
poor farmers of the sub-montaneous region of Punjab. We must have to remember that
“A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself”. Thus we should conserve our important
natural resource soil and improve production for feeding the nation.

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