Land Footprint Management and Policies

Abstract

There would be significant rise in production of animal products as well as food products due to higher demand across the globe. This would lead to generation of competition for the cultivable land which would be regulated by array of factors along with population explosion, alternation in consumption pattern of food as well as production of biofuel. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the inter-relationship between the agricultural land use and the pattern of consumption by the human. Various methodologies and modeling approach are available for calculation of land footprint. As per requirement, land footprint may be extended by considering environmental impacts on spatio-temporal scale to evaluate the embedded land under land footprint. Weightage on land area, land quality was given for estimation of land footprint for various types of land uses in the form of cropland, deforestation, and grassland ecosystem. Reducing land footprint requires awareness regarding the issue and control over the growth of economy across the globe which alters the consumption pattern as well as the pressure on natural land resources. Further research and extensive studies are required to generate suitable database for effective screening of suitable land use systems for reducing the land footprint.