Socio-Ecology of Frazing Land Management: Inventory of Issuses

Often the technological solutions to problems arising out of low productivity of grazing lands in arid and semi-arid regions are searched in a very narrow framework. Different classes of users ranging from landless livestockmen to landed livestockmen are considered equally vulnerable in the event of fodder crisis. Result is that either the equal stakes are assumed of each class in conservation strategies, or policies like privatization or closure of common grazing land are, suggested (which affect the landless most adversely in the short as well as long term), without simultaneously organizing water and fodder distribution network or alternative employment opportunities for these classes. Frequent droughts in these regions have impaired the ability of small farmers and agricultural laboureres (SFAL) to adjust with the lean seasons through livestock management. Often the poor are considered the culprit and responsible for environmental degradation. The public policies for wasteland development have tended to worsen the dynamics of access differnetial that exists as regards pasture lands. Technologists have not viewed the multiple roles of grazers as livestockmen-cum-cultivator-cum-craftsmen and labourers. This paper makes a forceful plea for adopting socio-ecological approach to the problems of grazing land management in semi-arid and arid regions; if prospects of large scale social tensions feared on this ground and not in too distant a future are to be avoided.