In the next two decades, population of India is likely to cross 1.4 billion
mark. With additional burden on food grains consumption from demographic shift
from rural to urban centers and change in food habits, India need to produce
about 325 million tons of food grains by 2027. Since the competing demands from
other sectors of economy for the inelastic land resource are multiplying fast,
the best agricultural lands are being encroached upon by these sectors. Thus,
any further increase in food grains has to come from either vertical increase in
productivity or through reclamation of so called wastelands. Out of 8.5 million
ha of salt affected