Agricultural Land Use Change and Its Environmental Consequences: A Geographic Assessment

Abstract The agricultural land use is experiencing tremendous change in the world especially in developing countries such as India in which population increase, urbanization and shifting economic interests are modifying the traditional farming sceneries. This paper addresses the trend and causes of agricultural land use change and assesses the environmental impacts or implications of this development using a geographic perspective. The replacement of food grain with cash crop, increased irrigation and decline in falls and forest cover are among the trends that have extensive implications. These are soil erosion, drainage of water resources, deforestation, biodiversity erosion and greenhouse gas emissions. Through the prism of the case study of India, this study combines geospatial analysis, secondary data analysis, and case studies that are specific to the region in question to give the thorough picture of these dynamics. To track the change of land cover and evaluate the ecological effects, the Remote Sensing, GIS, and NDVI tools were employed. The paper highlights that the interpretation of spatial and temporal changes in land use is important to the sustainability of the environment. It ends with policy recommendations, including the promotion of agroecology, crop zoning, and the use of technologies that use less water. The results indicate the necessity of combined land-use planning, geospatial observations in real time, and agricultural operations that are ecologically sustainable to maintain the ecological balance and food security.