Diversification and Land Use Management Practices for Food and Nutritional Security Under Climate Change Scenario in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions of India

Abstract

Arid and semi-arid regions cover more than 50% of the total geographical area in India which is highly populated, water-limited with warm drylands. There is an expectation that the area of drylands will expand under several scenarios of climate change. Maintaining food and nutritional security in this growing rural population of 265 million is a mammoth challenge in the near future. This task can be taken by diversifying the existing scarce resources in a sustainable manner as well as systematic land use management. Indian agriculture sector is dominated by marginal and small farm holdings. Production intensification or land diversification are the keys to agricultural sustainability. After achieving food sustenance for the family, crop intensification/ diversification becomes the mainstay for commercial agriculture. The traditional farming systems are self-contained and show resilience to aberrant weather conditions but yield poorly. An optimization of land usage into cropping, horticulture, livestock, forestry with an objective of food and nutritional security along with profitability holds the key for the future course of sustainable agriculture.