Farmers awareness level about soil related issues and its causes

Environmental degradation and climate change are the two major problems confronting agriculture today. Soil is key factor and play important role in agriculture production. Land degradation is decline in productivity of land. It is estimated that 97.85 million ha area of country is undergoing land degradetation. There are various factor responsible for soil degradation like climate change, excessive use of fertilizers and chemicals, soil transportation, sea water intrusion, water-wind erosion, movement of heavy vehicle, urbanization, industries effluent etc. The study was conducted in seven district of South Gujarat. Two taluka were selected from each district and five villages from each selected taluks. Five respondents were selected randomly from each selected villages. Thus, total 350 respondents selected for present investigation. Respondents had moderate level of awareness about soil related issues. Majority of respondents were aware about climate change and sea water intrusion was the key factor in deteriorate the soil quality.