ABSTRACT
One of the major problems of building a theory of soil erosion is the high degree of contingency which always accompanies any explanation of soil erosion at a particular place. In the former, they find expression in land-use patterns, the spatial patterns of agricultural technology including the diffusion of innovations, price-distance relationships of inputs and outputs, spatial patterns of size of landholdings and other more complex eco-class relationships. Soil erosion problems can be analysed in a framework of Chinese boxes, each fitting inside the other. The evolution of the philosophy behind family planning during the last twenty years has moved rather quicker than that of soil conservation so that the present thinking and problems may indicate that in general terms, this critique of conservation policy is not new, but the transfer of ideas merely overdue. The genesis of political consciousness towards conservation programmes arose in different circumstances, but its development has been moving in the directions as family planning programmes.
