Sustainability of rainwater management practices for rainfed crops under different agro-ecological sub-regions of India

Abstract

Facing the food and poverty crises in developing countries will require a new emphasis on smallscale water management in rainfed agriculture involving the redirection of water policy and large new investments. Rainfed systems dominate world food production, but water investments in rainfed agriculture have been neglected over the past 50 years. Upgrading rainfed agriculture promises large social, economic, and environmental paybacks, particularly in poverty reduction and economic development. Rainfed farming covers most of the world’s cropland (80%) and produces most of the world’s cereal grains (more than 60%), generating livelihoods in rural areas and producing food for cities. Estimates suggest that about 25% of the increased water requirement needed to attain the 2015 hunger reduction target of the Millennium Development Goal can be contributed from irrigation. The remaining 75% will have to come from water investments in rainfed agriculture. There is a close correlation between hunger, poverty, and water: most hungry and poor people live in regions where water challenges pose a particular constraint to food production. The world’s hotspots for hunger and poverty are concentrated in the arid, semiarid, and dry subhumid regions of the world. There, water is a key challenge for food production due to the extreme variability of rainfall, long dry seasons, and recurrent droughts, floods, and dry spells. These regions cover some 40% of the world’s land area and host roughly 40% of the world’s population. The water challenge in these rainfed areas is to enhance yields by improving water availability and the water uptake capacity of crops.