Grassland in Soil Conservation

Abstract

let me at the outset thank the Society for inviting me to preside over this section. While I appreciate the honour, my only claim to this recognition seems to be that I was associated till recently with the establishment and growth of the section of Agrostology at the I.A.R.I. and have been greatly interested in this problem of livestock feeding for quite some time past. Lately, my association with the D.V.C. Soil Conservation Department has convinced me that all our efforts to deal with the problem of soil conservation in the uplands are likely to be nullified if no adequate care is taken of the grazing. I am indeed very happy to see that this Society is among the very few organizations which have a separate section allotted to this subject; in fact, this section was added only last year. Though the number of papers for this section has been few, this, however, does not lessen the funda- mental role of the grasses in the agricultura economyof the country. It only indicates tha research work has not proceeded far enougl and needs to be strengthened as quickly as possible. I hope that all soil conservationists agronomists and other scientists will givi special importance to the study of this problem