Agri-horticultural systems for rainfed areas

Abstract

Rainfed Agriculture has a crucial role to play in the economy and food security of India. At present, about 60% of the net sown area is rainfed, contributing 40% of the total food production; it supports 40% of human, and 60% of livestock population. However, climate change, aberrant behavior of monsoon rainfall, land /soil degradation (70 m ha) with multiple nutrient and water deficiencies, declining the ground water table and poor resource base of the farmers are principle constraints for low and unstable yields in rainfed areas Increasing crop productivity to meet food , fodder, fuel, timber and fruit requirements of teaming millions in our country poses a greater challenge. In this context, there is a need to enhance the productivity of rainfed crops from at least 1 to 2 t to meet the food requirements by 2020 AD. . Therefore integrated farming systems assumes a greater importance for sound management of farm productivity, reducing environmental degradation, improve the quality of life of the resource poor farmers and sustainability in rainfed regions. A farming system is defined as a population of individual farm systems that have broadly similar resource basis, enterprise patterns, household livelihoods and constraints and for which similar development strategies and interventions would be appropriate. Depending on the scale of the analysis, a farming system can encompass a few dozen or many millions of households .In a farming system, the farm family is also intimately linked. Farming system is holistic in its scope. It is based on the ecological, economic and demographic considerations. Farming systems provide for better utilization of resources and provide for maximization of returns to the owned or internally generated resources. Farming systems also help in mitigating the impact of drought on the income and thereby by livelihoods of the farmers.