The ultimate aim of any modern corporate is growth with profit maximization. Growth is the first and foremost characteristic of nature and its products which include modern societies with all their industrial, agricultural and service sectors and above all the research organizations to cater to the needs of primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. Governed by the laws of the universe and nature, societies, markets and above all human life are in the constant churn of development in the realm of creativity and innovativeness.

This study warns that indiscriminate use of natural resources, increased biotic interference and intensified use of land have adverse effects on ecological balance and environment which is threatening the accomplishment of sustainable development of agriculture. Against this scenario, this study evaluates the Andhra Pradesh Participatory Tribal Development Project (APPTDP) implemented for a period of eight years, i.e., from the year 1995-96 to 2002-03. It is obvious from this study that the programs of natural resource development like minor irrigation tanks/small kuntas; soil, water and moisture conservation works; horticulture and non-timber forest produce species; and arable crop development schemes in tribal areas have improved their participatory levels on conservation of resources. Further, this study finds that these programs have a negative impact on the growth of total cropped area as they keep their uneconomical lands under fallow and substitute their income through wage employment. However, this study concludes that these programs have increased the land productivity for the present and also help in the growth of sustainable development of agriculture in future.

The chopping down of the trees, drawing of excess ground water for irrigation and indiscriminate use of lands and forests have adverse effects on sustainable development of agriculture via ecological imbalance and environmental degradation. Due to population growth "land hungry farmers resort to cultivating unsuitable areassteeply sloped, erosion-prone hill sides; semi-arid land where soil degradation is rapid; and tropical forests where crop yields on cleared fields frequently drop sharply after just a few years"1. Increased biotic interference and intensified use of land and water has resulted in resource degradation. The World Development Report20032 clearly indicates that "erosion, salinization, compaction, and other forms of soil degradation affect 30% of the world's irrigated lands, 40% of rain-fed agricultural lands, and 70% of range-lands". The combination of population growth and poverty would create conditions for indiscriminate use of natural resources, which has serious repercussions on the environment that "threaten with frequent droughts, excess rains, floods/cyclones and other problems"3. (For details, see Flow Chart 1). Thus, the concept of sustainable development of agriculture has received greater attention of the agricultural scientists, economists and policy makers, and farmers at large in recent years.