ANNUAL REPORT 2017-18

Abstract

The All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture (AICRPDA) with network of 27 centers located in arid, semi-arid, sub-humid, humid and per-humid climates represent diverse bio-physical and socio-economic settings of the rainfed production systems (rice, maize, sorghum, pearlmillet, ϐingermillet, cotton, groundnut and soybean) of the country. The project has the mandate to generate location speciϐic technologies through on-station research in thematic areas of rainwater management (RWM), cropping systems (CS), nutrient management (NM), energy management (EM), evaluation of improved varieties (EIV) of rainfed crops, and alternate land use(ALU)/integrated farming systems (IFS). The technologies are assessed on farmers’ ϐields through 8 Operational Research Projects (ORPs). During 2017-18, a total of 197 on-station experiments were conducted viz. RWM-40; CS-28; NM-41; EM-15; EIV-20; ALU & IFS-48; and resource characterization-5. In ORPs, 104 on-farm trials/demonstrations were conducted viz. RWM-22; CS-23; NM-15; EM-13; EIV-25; ALU/IFS-6. During 2017-18, the onset of monsoon was normal across all AICRPDA centres except Rajkot (delay by 18 days), Chianki (11 days), Faizabad (11 days) and Vijayapura (12 days). Further, there were 3-4 dry spells of more than 10 days each at different stages of crops at Akola, Ananthapuramu, Bengaluru, Biswanath Chariali, Chianki, Jagdalpur, Kovilpatti, Parbhani and Phulbani. The rainfall was deϐicit by more than 40% during June 2017 at Agra, Aklera, Faizabad and Varanasi whereas the rainfall exceeded the normal by more than 150% at Hisar, SK Nagar and Ananthapuramu. In July, the deϐicit in rainfall was more than 35% at Agra, Anantapuramu, Bengaluru, Darsi, Kovilpatti, Parbhani, Phulbani, Solapur and Varanasi. Similarly, in August, Chianki, Phulbani, Raichur, Rakh Dhiansar, Rewa, SK Nagar and Varanasi recorded more than 35% deϐicit rainfall. In September, Agra, Arjia, Chianki, Hisar, Indore, Rajkot, Rewa, Rakh Dhiansar, SK Nagar, Solapur and Varanasi received 50-87% deϐicit rainfall. Similarly, in October, Agra, Aklera, Arjia, Ballowal Saunkhri, Faizabad, Hisar, Parbhani, Rajkot, Rakh Dhiansar, Rewa, SK Nagar and Varanasi did not receive any rainfall. In November, the rainfall was deϐicit across all centres except Hisar and no rainfall was received at Agra, Aklera, Akola, Arjia, Ballowal Saunkhri, Faizabad, Indore, Jagdalpur, Parbhani, Raichur, Rajkot, Rewa, SK Nagar, Varanasi and Vijayapura.