Ayan JainAIR 16 · CSE 2023 · 220 wordsTheir whole copy
Opening · a date or context
In the 1950s, India was largely an agrarian economy. Since then, many changes have taken place with respect to land-use pattern.
Body · points
Changes since Independence
- Shrinking land holdings (Average farmer has 1.08 Ha of land).
- Inequitable distribution (86% farmers are small and marginal, <2 Ha land).
- Diversion of land to non-agricultural purposes like setting up factories.
- Widespread deforestation: for agricultural and non-agricultural purposes.
- Increased land pollution due to industrial effluents and chemical fertilizers.
- More growth of food crops than forests.
- Low yield and productivity of land.
Impact on climate change
- Industrialization → Huge release of greenhouse gases into atmosphere.
- Resilience to climate change has decreased (eg. Low yield of agricultural land).
- Extensive focus on crops like paddy have released lot of methane.
- Deforestation led to erratic rainfall.
- Overgrazing further affected quality of soil/land.
- Unsustainable means of production (eg. Surface flood irrigation) are exacerbating the effects of climate change (eg. Droughts).
- Emergence of new pests (eg. Locust attack).
- More frequent and intense extreme weather events like floods.
- Increased vulnerability of all sections to climate change.
Close · a way forward
Thus, changing land use pattern has had an unpredictable impact on climate change, and it must be dealt with urgently due to possible natural disasters associated with climate change.
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