Abstract

                                Favoured with an annual rainfall of over 150 inches and made up largely of hills and valleys, the district of South Kanara is a land of rivers and abundant vegetation. While the rainfall provides an assured supply of water for one crop in normal seasons, its distribution over a short period of four months from June to September, with downpours lasting sometimes for days at a stretch, causes an appall- ing amount of erosion with all its attendent evils, Year after year, the best part of the soil is washed away into the sea and valuable plant foods are lost by leaching. Under natural conditions, it is probable that the greater part of this erosion would have been effectively checked by nature's own mechanism. When one sees the sudden emergence of green pasture after the first showers in May-June, one is tempted to think that the pre-monsoon showers followed by a short break are intended by nature to prepare the ground to face the rigours of the monsoon. But cultivation practices as adopted by the average ryot pay scant regard to soil conservation practices, so that a serious situation is created in the agriculture of the district.

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