Guidelines for rainfed production system and management.

Abstract

With inadequate water resources for irrigation, India remains at least 50% under rainfed agriculture. In future the rainfed areas are required to meet raising demand of food, pulses, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits, etc. on sustained basis. But the production remains a gamble due to uncertainties in rainfall. Any extended period of water stress especially injurious to plants is termed as drought. Even though the droughts are inevitable and unavoidable, but are manageable. Over decades, several technologies to mitigate drought affects at farm level are evolved. This improved crop husbandry insulates against stress. Drought planning is a dynamic process. Herein, the planning for managing drought based on intensity in a season (severe, moderate, mild and low) based on actual evapotranspiration to potential evapotranspiration in chronic, ephemeral (early, mid and late seasons) and apparent drought situations were described with paths during a season. Drought amelioration techniques by selecting productive farming systems and drought proofing methods based on land capability and rainfall (upto 1500 mm) were included. Information was also given on contingency plans, nutrient management, soil water conservation measures including water harvesting based on land capability, rainfall and soil orders. A collective land use system with perennials, annuals, herbaceous plants, livestock in spatial arrangements or in rotation or both with ecological and economical interactions in an Agroforestry model creates situation where a farmer can manage their own natural resources in a sustainable productive way making them less dependent on external inputs by following the described paths. These micro level farming systems are practicable only in rainfed lands due to resilience in adoption of diversification from crop through tree to animal. This summary is the culmination of experiences, from both on-farm and research stations, of about 130 scientists in a multi-disciplinary team working in the All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture, started in 1970 with 23 centres spread from arid through semi-arid to sub-humid climatic zones, comprising rainfed rice, oilseeds, pulses, cotton and coarse cereals based production systems.