Sodic land is the basic problem faced by a large number of small & marginal farmers throughout the country. Statistics reveal that U.P. alone has 168417 hectare of sodic land out of 2981907 hectares of total land. Economic surveys conducted by the Govt.of India revealed that cumulative irrigated land stood at 85 million hectares. As such the nation is faced with an unprecedented problem of sodic land which continues to engulf the cultivable lands due to various pollution factors. Therefore, belated efforts have now been made in this direction to check the degradation of the soil & increase the agriculture productivity vis-a-vis farmers' economy. Hitherto, efforts have been concentrated on the use of chemical methods to reclaimate the sodic land which includes the use of Pyrites, Gypsum etc. The sustainability of the reclaimation of sodic land using chemicals methods have serious limitations & are increasingly being questioned! Therefore, alternate economical & sustainable eco-friendly methods may offer promising potential in this vital field & deserve to be tried. The embodied project proposal is a serious endeavour to undertake reclaimation of sodic land utilising eco-friendly approaches on pilot scale to demonstrate their efficacy for prospective replication by small & marginal farmers on large scale throughout the country.

The contribution of sodic land in the total waste land is very high in India. In U.P. alone the available figures reveals that out of 2981907 hectares of total land, 168417 hectare is identified as sodic land. The situation in other states is more or less the same but for the geographical variables. Most soil degradation is caused by human activities like overgrazing, deforestation, poor land management, over exploitation, discharge of waste water, garbage dumping, the soil erosion, decline in biological degradation, hydrologic degradation etc. are the well known consequences of waste land formation. Silty loam to loam soils have been reported to contain higher amounts of soluble salts. The ECe ranges from 9 to 29 ds/m & the pH is as high as 10. Carbonate & bicarbonate are the dominant anions with chlorides & sulphates in major amounts. The poorly drained soil of low permeability have a high calicic value at a depth of about 1 meter. They have low amounts of available N & P & medium amounts of available K.

Survey of sodic land in Haryana using multiband FCC land sat imageries in 1:250,000 scale have been conducted. Multidata imageries over the past 10 years showed that the alkali affected area in Haryana has shrunk considerably but 16,000 hectares remain unreclaimed. Various institutions in different states have focused attention on the reclaimation of sodic land and majority of them have predominately confined their attempts to the use of chemical methods. A brief account of the past experience in handling the sodic land is detailed below:-
 

• A single dose of 75% of the requirement of Gypsum in the sodic calcarious clay soil increased the yield of wheat (2.59 tonnes/hectare) & rice on a similar soil at Indore. The use of Pyrites (alone or in combination with form yard manure ground nut, husk & wheat straw) increased the yield of rice (3.2 tonnes/hectare)  & wheat (2.9 tonnes/hectare).
• Raising claster bean for three successive years resulted in an increase of the mineralised & organic N fractions of the soil consequently pearl millet raised on such a soil gave higher yield.
• High doses of N & P reduced the adverse effect of irrigating wheat with saline water, both soil sensitive varieties gave higher yields with salinity stress ,80 kg N,& 90 kg P/hectare than with no salinity stress & no N & P.
• A fertiliser dose of 120 kg N & 40 to 80 kg P O/hectare was found to be best for rice sequence both in kharif & rabi at Varanasi masodha (U.P.).
• In the absence of P & K application the loss in grain yield and fall in productivity was associated with the deficiencies of secondary nutrients & micro-nutrients. Sulphur deficiency caused a significant reduction in rice yield.
• On sodic soil, rice initially showed a significant response to zinc unless P also was added. Application of 40 kg P O + 10 kg Zinc sulphate per hectare increase the grain yield of rice by 0.98 tonnes/hectare. When rice & wheat were grown in sequence, the optimum zinc dose to each crop was 10 kg. Zinc sulphate per hectare.

On saline lands in different part of the country the wheat varieties that performed well were "Karnal II - 10, Karnal III-7 & Karnal-23".

Hulled barley variety were reported to be superior to hull-less ones for growing on salt effected lands. Like wise, there are various trees which can grow on sodic reclaimation. Saline soils on highly saline water logged sails of village sample near Rohtak,Tamarix gallica & Prosopis juliflora were found to be better than Acacia callistemon, casuarina & Eucalyptus grown on non saline soils.
 

• In the saline alkali areas around Pantnagar, Dulbergia sissoo, Albizia procera & Terminalia arjuna which stood salinity up to EC 12.2 mm hos/cm were successfully grown. however, the biomass production decreased with an increase in salinity & alkalinity. There was no adverse effect on the height & girth of Populas deltoides. When it was grown in association with agricultural crops but its mortality was high when grown in association with maize, potato, onion (mortality of popular 16.25%) & Ginger-radish (12.5%). Its mortality was lowest (7%) when grown with soybean-radish.
• Report from Neyvella lignite corporation revealed that fly ash can be economically & conveniently be used for the stabilization of soil as successfully done by them on 10,000 square meter. It also found application in the reclaimation of the sodic land due to its increased calcium solubility. However, because of the variability of toxic constituents of the fly ash from place to place, the applicability of the soil reclaiming agent has to be found out.
Food for all without our dependence on imports can be achieved if we are able to harness our land resources properly and effectively. A large percentage of our waste land is affected by sodic syndrome, as such the nation suffers serious set back in agricultural productivity on one hand and the efforts to improve the farmers economy on the other. U.P. alone has an estimated 168417 hectares of sodic land as against the 2981907 hectare of total land. A massive project with the financial support of World Bank has been initiated in several districts using chemical methods. As such the S & T intervention in this important field of rural development can augment the pace of sodic land reclaimation efforts at governmental & non governmental level. The worst suffered of the sodic land are the small & marginal farmers who had to be contended with the infertile land. Belated efforts made in this direction are capital intensive and rotate on the chemical treatment of sodic soil which yield limited results and sustainability of soil fertility after three/four crops remains questionable. Therefore, this project has been conceived to attempt economical and eco-friendly approaches in the reclaimation of sodic land to offer sustainable solution as alternative to chemical method of soil reclaimation.
The organization has successfully contributed in the implementation of sodic land reclamation project as a sub-implementing agency of the Remote Sensing Application Centre, Lucknow. The investigating group has  adequate background and expertise in the qualitative and quantitative determination of soil micronutrients & water quality assessment vis-a-vis optimum formulation of organic based manure which may ultimately be regarded as the edifice of the sodic soil reclaimation studies.

The organization through its R & D outfit has adequate resource and infra structural strength to undertake such studies on pilot scale basis in the outskirts of Lucknow over a patch of sodic land measuring approximate 10 hectare. The methodology involves the application of organic manure in different proportions along with other animal and horticulture waste refuge generated by way of multiple activities to be used in sequential manner for the reclamation of sodic land as a sponsored project of  Dept. of Science & Technology, Govt. of India. More results shall be introduced in this web site in time to come. 
 

• In the saline alkali areas around Pantnagar, Dulbergia sissoo, Albizia procera & Terminalia arjuna which stood salinity up to EC 12.2 mm hos/cm were successfully grown. however, the biomass production decreased with an increase in salinity & alkalinity. There was no adverse effect on the height & girth of Populas deltoides. When it was grown in association with agricultural crops but its mortality was high when grown in association with maize, potato, onion (mortality of popular 16.25%) & Ginger-radish (12.5%). Its mortality was lowest (7%) when grown with soybean-radish.
• Report from Neyvella lignite corporation revealed that fly ash can be economically & conveniently be used for the stabilization of soil as successfully done by them on 10,000 square meter. It also found application in the reclaimation of the sodic land due to its increased calcium solubility. However, because of the variability of toxic constituents of the fly ash from place to place, the applicability of the soil reclaiming agent has to be found out.

The organization through its R & D outfit has adequate resource and infra structural strength to undertake such studies on pilot scale basis in the outskirts of Lucknow over a patch of sodic land measuring approximate 10 hectare. The methodology involves the application of organic manure in different proportions along with other animal and horticulture waste refuge generated by way of multiple activities to be used in sequential manner for the reclamation of sodic land as a sponsored project of  Dept. of Science & Technology, Govt. of India. More results shall be introduced in this web site in time to come.