Syllabus- Natural resources: Land resources: competing uses of land- food, feed, fuel, and fiber; Mining and Environment; Sustainability of natural resources.
Number of questions- Mains: 02, Prelims – 10
Mains Questions of the day-
1.Mention the issues relating to mining practices and the need to adopt sustainable mining approach?
Introduction:
Write the importance of mining.
Body:
- Mention the issues associated with the present practices of mining.
- Mention the measures to overcome the challenges of mining through sustainable mining
Conclusion:
Since minerals are a shared inheritance of the people and future generations, it is essential that as a nation, we change our paradigm to understand minerals as a “shared inheritance,” not a source of “windfall revenue.”
Content:
Mining:
- The extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth is known as mining.
- Mining operations almost always have a negative impact on the environment, both during the mining process and after the mine has closed.
- As a result, most countries have passed regulations to reduce the impact.
- However, Mining plays a large role in revenue generating such as it supports roughly 45% of the world’s economic activities.
- This causes non-availability of minerals and their value for future generations to inherit.
- This also has a social and an environmental impact as well.
- There is a need to adhere to the principle of sustainable mining, which makes it necessary to ensure future generations inherit at least as much as that of the current generation.
Issues Associated with Mining:
- Going Beyond Carrying Capacity:
- Carrying capacity is the maximum population size that an ecosystem can sustainably support without degrading the ecosystem. Deaths and long term damage to an ecosystem occurs when a population exceeds the carrying capacity of its ecosystem.
- In many cases, mining operations have been carried out without concern for the ‘carrying capacity’ of the environment and other infrastructural limitations.
- This has put avoidable pressure on the environment and caused inconveniences to the people living in the mining areas.
- Loss of Public Revenue:
- Driven by lobbying, political donations, and corruption, minerals are often sold at prices significantly lower than what they are worth.
- Illegal mining, in many cases, has a similar effect while additionally causing loss of public revenues.
- According to the International Monetary Fund, due to unsustainable mining, many resource-rich nations face declining public sector net worth.
- Large Number of Small Mines:
- In India, many small mines (including quarries for extracting minor minerals) operate in most states.
- These present difficult challenges for sustainable development as their financial, technical, and managerial limitations restrict their ability to take adequate corrective measures.
- Growing Inequality & Loss of Natural Wealth:
- Naturally, the extractors are interest to extract as much as possible. This deepens inequalities, as a few extractors acquire wealth without proper redistribution to the people.
- It also results in the loss of natural wealth. For example, it is estimated from the annual reports of Vedanta that over eight years (2004-2012), the State of Goa lost more than 95% of the value of its minerals.
The following are the measures need to be adopt in mining to make it sustainable: –
- Life-Cycle Approach:
There is a need to apply sustainability principles to all stages of the mine life cycle – exploration, mine planning, construction, mineral extraction, mine closure, and post-closure reclamation and rehabilitation. These principles include elements such as:
- Equal distribution of resources to present and future generation (wise use of resources)
- The Precautionary Principle
- Scientific Mining and
- Management of Environmental and Socio-economic Impacts.
- Creation of Future Generation Fund:
- Like Norway, the entire mineral sale proceeds must be saved in a Future Generations Fund.
- Also, in 2014 the Supreme Court set up a global judicial precedent by ordering the creation of a Goa Iron Ore Permanent Fund.
- This model which is applied to all the major mining areas.
- Adherence to Zero-Loss Principle:
- If we extract and sell our mineral wealth, the explicit objective must be to achieve zero loss in value.
- The state as trustee must capture the full economic rent (sale price minus the cost of extraction, cost including reasonable profit for extractor).
- Consortium of Small Mining Enterprises:
- In order to reduce the limitations of small mines in carrying out sustainable development activities, consortium of small mining enterprises in a region should be promoted.
- Also, technical advisory services should be made available to them in the relevant areas.
- Environmental Footprint Framework:
- A common sustainable mining framework should be focused on reducing the environmental impacts of mining.
- Strategies for assessing mining operations’ sustainability include measuring, monitoring, and improving various environmental performance metrics.
- These are used to determine whether a mining operation is sustainable or not.
- The key metrics for environmental sustainability in mining relate to efficiencies in resource consumption, minimizing land disturbance, pollution reduction, as well as closure and reclamation of exhausted mine lands.
- Multi-Stakeholder Approach:
- Preparation of a socio-economic assessment report for a mining project should be made a part of the permitting process for the grant and administration of mineral concession to a mining enterprise.
- Mining enterprises should preferably execute local socio-economic development works rather than government and semi-government agencies to avoid the problems of inadequate capacity, political manipulation, and corruption.
2.Explain the Agriculture Development in India.
Introduction:
Mention some statics regarding land use pattern in agriculture.
Body:
Mention the Agriculture development in India.
Conclusion:
End with the need for sustainable mining.
Content:
Agricultural Land Uses in India:
- Land resource is more crucial resources for livelihood of the people depending on agriculture:
- Agriculture is purely land based activity. The contribution of land in agricultural output is more compared to its contribution made in other sectors. Thus, lack of access to land is directly correlated with incidence of poverty in rural areas.
- Quality of land has a direct bearing on the productivity of agriculture.
- In rural areas, agriculture being a productive factor, beyond that it has a social value and serves as a security for credit, or life contingencies, and also adds to the social status.
- An estimation of the total stock of agricultural land resources (i.e. total cultivable land) can be arrived at by adding up net sown area, all fallow lands and culturable wasteland.
- It may be observed that over the years, there has been a marginal decline in the available total stock of cultivable land as a percentage to total reporting area.
- There has been a greater decline of cultivated land.
- Food Grains occupy about two-third of total cropped area in the country.
- Food grains are dominant crops in all parts of India whether they have subsistence or commercial agricultural value.
- India produces about 11% cereals of the world and ranks third in production after China and U.S.A.
- India produces a variety of cereals, which are classified as fine grains (rice, wheat) and coarse grains (jowar, bajra, maize, ragi), etc.
Agriculture development in India-
- Before Independence
- Indian agricultural economy was largely subsistence in nature. It had dismal performance in the first half of twentieth century.
- This period witnessed severe droughts and famines.
- During Partition
About one-third of the irrigated land in undivided India went to Pakistan. This reduced the proportion of irrigated area in Independent India.
- After Independence
- The immediate goal of the Government was to increase food grains production by, switching over from cash crops to food crops; intensification of cropping over already cultivated land; and increasing cultivated area by bringing cultivable and fallow land under plough.
- Initially, this strategy helped in increasing food grains production. But agricultural production stagnated during late 1950s.
- To overcome this problem, Intensive Agricultural District Programme (IADP) and Intensive Agricultural Area Programme (IAAP) were launched.
- But two consecutive droughts during mid-1960s resulted in food crisis in India.
- Consequently, food grains were imported from other countries.
- New seed varieties of wheat (Mexico) and rice (Philippines) known as high yielding varieties (HYVs) were available for cultivation by mid-1960s.
- India took advantage of this and introduced package technology comprising HYVs, along with chemical fertilisers in irrigated areas of Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Gujarat.
- Assured supply of soil moisture through irrigation was a basic pre-requisite for the success of this new agricultural technology. This strategy of agricultural development paid dividends instantly and increased the food grains production at very fast rate. This spurt of agricultural growth came to be known as ‘Green Revolution’.
- This also gave fillip to the development of a large number of Agro-inputs, Agro-processing industries, and small-scale industries.
- This made the country self-reliant in food grain production.
- But Green Revolution was initially confined to irrigated areas only.
- This led to regional disparities in agricultural development in the country till 1970s, after which the technology spread to the Eastern and Central parts of India.
- The Planning Commission of India focused its attention on the problems of agriculture in rainfed areas in 1980s.
- It initiated Agro-climatic planning in 1988 to induce regionally balanced agricultural development in India.
- It also emphasised on the need for diversification of agriculture and harnessing of resources for the development of dairy farming, poultry, horticulture, livestock rearing and aquaculture.
- Initiation of the policy of liberalisation and free market economy in 1990s influenced the course of development of Indian agriculture.
- Growth of Agriculture Output and Technology: There has been a significant increase in agricultural output and improvement in technology during the last 50 years.
- Production and yield of many crops such as rice and wheat has increased at an impressive rate. Among the other crops, the production of sugarcane, oilseeds and cotton has also increased appreciably.
- Expansion of Irrigation:
- It has played a crucial role in enhancing agricultural output in India.
- It provided basis for introduction of modern agricultural technology, such as high yielding varieties of seeds, chemical fertilisers, pesticides, and farm machinery.
- The net irrigated area in the country has also increased.
- Modern agricultural technology has diffused very fast in various areas of the country.
- Consumption of chemical fertilizers has increased by 15 times since mid 1960’s.
- Since the high yielding varieties are highly susceptible to pests and diseases, the use of pesticides has increased significantly since 1960s.
- National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA)
- It is to make agriculture more productive, sustainable, remunerative and climate resilient by promoting location specific integrated/composite farming systems and to conserve natural resources through appropriate soil and moisture conservation measures.
- The Government has been promoting organic farming in the country through the scheme such as Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) and Rastriya Vikas Yojana (RKVY).
- Farmer’s Portal of India:
- It gives detailed information on farmers’ insurance, agriculture storage, crops, extension activities, seeds, pesticides, farm machineries, etc.
- Block level details related to soil fertility, storage, insurance, training, etc. are available in an interactive map.
Prelims Questions of the day:
1.Which of the following state is India’s largest Bauxite producer?
- Odisha
- Jharkhand
- Rajasthan
- Karnataka
Explanation:
- Orissa: is the largest bauxite producing state accounting for more than half of the total production of India.
- The total recoverable reserves in the state are estimated at 1,370.5 million tones.
- The main bauxite belt is in Kalahandi and Koraput districts and extends further into Andhra Pradesh.
2.Which of the following represent the leguminous crop?
- Pulses
- Millets
- Jowar
- Sesamum
Answer: A
Explanation:
- Leguminous is used to describe plants in the legume family, which includes the plants that produce some beans, pulses, peas, and lentils.
- Crops that have nodules in their roots that contain nitrogen-fixing bacteria are called leguminous crops.
3.Which one of the following is the main form of degradation in irrigated areas?
- Gully erosion
- Wind erosion
- Salinisation of soils
- Siltation of land
Answer: C
Explanation:
Salinisation of soils:
- Soil erosion removes topsoil which is the fertile layer of soil.
- It is a main reason for degradation or soil erosion in irrigated areas.
4.Which one of the following crops is not cultivated under dryland farming?
- Ragi
- Jowar
- Groundnut
- Sugarcane
Answer: D
Explanation:
- Dryland refers to an area where annual rainfall is between 750 mm and 1150mm. Due to this reason, farming in these areas need an improved system of cultivation whereby maximum amount of soil and water is conserved. It is called dry land farming.
- Annual rainfall in these regions is uncertain, ill-distributed and limited.
- There is an occurrence of extensive climatic hazards like drought, flood etc. in these regions.
- The soil surface in these regions is also undulating;
- In these regions, farmers have extensive and large land holdings;
- In these areas, farmers practice extensive agriculture prevalence of mono cropping etc;
- Farmers in these regions grow similar type of crops.
- These crops in these regions have very low crop yield.
- Major dry farming crops are millets such as jowar, bajra, ragi; oilseeds like mustard, rapeseed and pulse crops like pigeon pea, gram and lentils.
- In India, almost 80 percent of maize, 90 percent of Bajra, approximately 95 percent of pulses and 75 percent of oilseeds are obtained from dryland agriculture.
5.Which of the following represent the Land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops?
- Domestic land
- Arable land
- Un-arable land
- Dry land
Answer: B
Explanation:
- Arable land is the land under temporary agricultural crops (multiple-cropped areas are counted only once), temporary meadows for mowing or pasture, land under market and kitchen gardens and land temporarily fallow (less than five years).
- India is blessed with large arable land with 15 agro-climatic zones as defined by ICAR, having almost all types of weather conditions, soil types and capable of growing a variety of crops.
- India is the top producer of milk, spices, pulses, tea, cashew and jute, and the second-largest producer of rice, wheat, oilseeds, fruits and vegetables, sugarcane and cotton.
6. Which of the following represents the wearing a way of a field’s topsoil by the natural physical forces of water and wind?
- Wind erosion
- Soil erosion
- Water erosion
- Sand erosion
Answer: B
Explanation:
- Soil erosion is the denudation of the upper layer of soil. It is a form of soil degradation.
- This natural process is caused by the dynamic activity of erosive agents, that is, water, ice, snow, air, plants, and animals.
7. Which of the following represents the ability of soils to resist erosion, based on the physical characteristics of each soil?
- Soil erodibility
- Soil erosion
- Soil potentiality
- Soil neutrality
Answer: A
Explanation:
- Erodibility describes or is a measure of the inherent resistance of geologic materials (soils and rocks) to erosion.
- Highly erodible geologic materials are readily displaced and transported by water.
8. How much percentage of total cropped area is occupied by the gram cultivation in India?
- 2.8%
- 25.2%
- 4.9%
- 11.7%
Answer: A
Explanation:
- Gram covers only about 2.8% of the total cropped area in the country.
- Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Rajasthan are the main producers of gram.
9.How much percentage of cropped area is occupied by cereals in India?
- 34%
- 44%
- 54%
- 64%
Answer: C
Explanation:
Major crops are rice, jute, and sugarcane. The cereals occupy about 54% of total cropped area in India
10.Which of the following organization is responsible for export promotion and development of agriculture products?
- APMC
- Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs)
- Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC)
- Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority
Answer: D
Explanation:
The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA):-
- The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) was established by the Government of India under the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority Act, 1985.
- It functions under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The Authority has its headquarters in New Delhi.
- Functions
- APEDA is mandated with the responsibility of export promotion and development of the scheduled agriculture products.
- APEDA has been entrusted with the responsibility to monitor import of sugar.
- It looks after the development of industries relating to the scheduled products for export by way of providing financial assistance or otherwise for undertaking surveys and feasibility studies, participating through subsidy schemes.
- Registration of persons as exporters of the scheduled products and fixing of standards and specifications for the scheduled products for the purpose of exports.
- Carrying out inspection of meat and meat products in slaughterhouses, processing plants, storage premises and improving packaging of the scheduled products.