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Rapid land use change has taken place in Tamil Nadu over the past three to four decades due to accelerated cultivation, industrialization and urbanization. Growth of population influenced increased food requirements. In order to meet the basic requirements, the Government has planned to increase the irrigation facilities and the agricultural inputs, (High yielding varieties (HYV), seeds, agricultural implements etc.) to the farmers and also implement the interventional schemes and incentives to enhance farmer's income. Land use change may be examined by considering conversion of forest to crop and rangeland; losses of productive land through various factors; conversion of wetlands to agriculture and urban use: and conversion of other types of land to various human uses. The key to meet the present day challenges lies in the integrated management of the natural resources. Therefore, the knowledge of soil and land resources with respect to their spatial distribution, characteristics, potentials, limitations and their suitability for alternate land uses helps in formulating strategies to obtain higher productivity on sustained basis. With these views in mind an attempt has been made to study the spatial and temporal changes in the land use in Tamil Nadu.

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Soil degradation is responsible for converting fertile agricultural lands into unproductive barren lands reducing productivity causing economic loss to the farmer and food insecurity. Degradation of land in any form diminishes the area of quality land available for agriculture resulting in greater yield variability, and thus, greater costs to risk-averse marginal farmers. Soil alkalinity is one such major form of degradation and causes upto 84.10 per cent of yield loss depending on intensity. In this context, the study examines the economic sustainability of farmers through soil reclamation. Though the cost of cultivation is increased due to adoption of reclamation, the economic loss due to alkalinity can be reduced by around 52 per cent and the net returns can be increased by around 1.5 per cent by reclamation. Investment on land and water must be viewed as investment on sustained food security, income, prosperity and environmental health. In this study salinity and alkalinity are used interchangeably.