Himalayan Times (1953)

February 22, 1953

ifiimuini'an dimi

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Seven

alloted for cultivation for each person
ot the world, only 1.5 acres are now
being cultivated, thus allowing 3.5 acres
per capita to go waste. Taking into
account the fact that 85 to. 90 percent
of the cultivated area of tile world are
devoted to foodgrains alone, it may he
possible to increase the land area under
the foodgrams'from 2,000 million acres
to about 11,000 million acres, If all the
the land area climatically suitable for
cultivation is employed for the purpise
Thus, an overall increase from 570 to
2,300 million tons in the pfoduction of
cereal grains per annum can be easily
reached at llue to various social, poli-
tical, religious and natural barriers, it
may be only an optimists dream to.
think of, the utilization of all the areas
which are climatically suitable f r cul-
tivation, but considering the estimate
made by the FAO that an increase of
60 million tons of cereals bv T960 is
necessary for feeding the world popula-
tion, it can t>e safely concluded that
an utilization of only 3 to 4 percent
of the area that is so far un cultivated
is sufficient to provide " food for all 11
in the world.

Soil fertility & erosion
The controlling of soil fertility an 1
erosion is especially important in the
tropica! and subtropical regions where
hi tie care is taken by the masses to
replenish the soil with its fertile com-
ponents by the application of fertilizers
and manuera and by proper methods of
cultivation and rotation of crops, and to
control the loss of topsoil by individual
care and through national projeots. As
regards the stock of fertilisers, it has been
estimated that world possesses potash
and phosphates quite enough for many
hundreds of years to come, ami for nitro-
gen it would not be difficult to have a
regular supply for many years as it
might be obtained by fixation of atmos-

pheric nitrogen through: utilization of
coal.

The heavy rainfall, dust-storm, ruth-
less burning - and over-grazing of pastures
etc. lead to irreparable losses due to soil
erosion Most of the countries that suffer
from this malady of this nature,.like the
U.S.A , India, Africa, .Australia, U S' '.II.,.
etc. have become conscious of the ho mr-
tanoe of soil conservation, and Various
agencies have baen set up to oontrol
soil erosion .Multipurpose dams like the
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA); Damo-
dar Valley Corporation (DV \), etc., are
regarded as estremelv helpful for this
purpose, and similar projects have come
into existence or are under way for cons-
ti notion in various countries.

Crop-Yield

Crop yield per acre varies to a con
siderable extent in different areas. I hs
average yield of Wh-at in Great Britain
is 3M times higher than that in India,
of Rice in Japan is -t times thin that
in India, of barley in Dm nark is 5
times than that in Algeria, of potato in
Belgium 4 times than that in Italy, and
so on One may ask, what are the rea-
sons for such differences ?

There are numerous causes to account
for such diiferenees, but broadly speaking,
the existing ecological conditions are the
chief among all these.

There is always a maximum limit
for the manifesiations of different stages
of crop growth and development which
contribute to its ultimate yield for a parti-
cular strain of a particular crop under a
definite ecological environment and under
the mo-t effective system of cultural prac-
tices. The maximum yield of a crop should
of course be considered fiomthe standpoint
of economical considerations, as the maxi-
mum productive capacity of a crop
should be regarded as that which will