1. Agriculture, Soil and Environment

Agriculture has always remained backbone of economy and socio-political stability of low and middle income countries, and employs largest work force in India. Maintenance of soil quality has been pointed out as one of the major contributing factors for sustainability of agricultural production. Rising contribution of industry to India's GDP has been speculated to cause adverse impact on the precious land resources; though the issue has received less attention among the policy makers. There is a complex relationship of Indian economy with industry and agriculture, both of which competing for same natural resources with differential impact on land resources. This chapter highlights the need for reviewing different developmental activities having direct or indirect impact on agricultural productivity and the need for accelarating soil research to investigate upon migration of pollutants from source of generation and their impact on soil so as to devise strategies for protection and remediation of precious non-renewable soil resources.