Relevance of interculture implements in enhancing productivity of dryland crops

Abstract

The Green Revolution in mid sixties, though a boon to Indian agriculture, ushered in era of wide disparity between productivity of irrigated and rainfed agriculture. Alarmed by such a situation, the Fourth Plan (1969-74) specifically emphasized the urgent need for creating circumstances that would enable the hitherto neglected farmers of the dryland to participate meaningfully in the agricultural development process (Fourth Plan, 112p). This socio-economic imbalance led to a serious rethinking on inducting an in-depth network research program to stabilize the performance of the then introduced hybrids of coarse cereals in rainfed region and to moderate the periodic drought related adverse impact on total agricultural productivity. The droughts of mid sixties catalyzed further the process of vigorous efforts in dryland research establishment. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) rose to the occasion and formulated a comprehensive program on dryland research.