The Forsaken Drylands

1. The Forsaken Drylands SEMINAR, Issue No. 564, August 2006

2. Data Total cultivated area – 143 mha Total rainfed area – 101 mha i.e. 70% of total cultivated area But the food production is only 42%. Source:- The forsaken drylands; Seminar. Aug 2006

3. Drylands (some statistics) Area. • 53% of the total cropped area. • 48% of area under food crops. • 68% of area under non food crops. Production. • 80% of output of coarse cereals. • 50% of maize. • 65% of chickpea and pigeon pea. • 81% of ground nut. • 88% of soybean. Population 43% of the country.

4. Dryland • Uncertainty of weather condition. • Low water potential. • Low soil fertility level. • People living BPL is more. • Low level of private investments.

5. Dependence on other livelihood such as poultry, piggery, goat rearing etc. • Indebtedness and hence more suicides. • Green revolution widened the gap more. Mihir Shah, Secretary, Samaj Pragati Sahayog, Bagli, Madhya Pradesh

6. Research • All India coordinated research project for dryland agriculture by ICAR (1970). • Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture. • International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)

7. Tackling the Problem • The drylands in India have a unique characteristic in that they are bestowed with a lot of diversity. Sometimes this diversity can be so overwhelming that a micro watershed might also have differing characteristics. • The only way to tackle this is to approach a path of “Sustainable Development” Sharachchandra Lele, Senior Fellow and Coordinator, Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Environment and Development, ISEC, Bangalore

8. The crux of the solution Building resilience into dryland agricultural systems against external fluctuations, whether major pest outbreaks or market crashes, might require them to be more internally diverse and complementary, and perhaps trading at multiple scales, not totally plugged into the global market. Unlocking the hidden potential of drylands, P.S. Vijay Shankar,  Director, Research Samaj Pragati Sahayog, Bagli

9. Path to attain sustainability • Crop Planning • Planning for weather • Crop Substitution • Cropping Systems

10. Path to attain sustainability • Fertilizer use • Integrated pest management • Rainwater management • Watershed management • Alternate Land use

11. Policy Initiatives • The report on watershed programmes, by the Parthasarthy Committee, has suggested setting up a National Authority for Sustainable Development of Rainfed Areas (NASDORA) to manage the watershed programmes under an umbrella and implement these in a mission mode. • The performance of NASDORA will be reviewed by an apex rainfed areas stakeholder’s council, headed by the Prime Minister.

12. NASDORA • It says that the government needs to allocate around Rs 10,000 crore per annum every year for the next 15 years for the Watershed work for drylands to be completed by 2020 • It suggests raising the cost norm from Rs 6,000 per hectare to Rs 12,000 per hectare. • The report says that watershed programmes may be executed by Village Watershed Committee of Gram Panchayat. • The committee should have 50 per cent women members and 33 per cent from among the SCs and STs.

13. Key factor • To mitigate the problems of dryland farming a cumulative approach of all factors like cultural, social, natural and agricultural should be undertaken • Various aspects like Community controlled watershed, easy agricultural credit, easy crop insurance, price support etc should be taken into consideration Drylands:The way forward,A. Ravindra, agriculture economist, Director WASSAN, G.V. Ramanjaneyulu, agriculture scientist, Executive Director; and Kavitha Kuruganti, Researcher, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture.

14. Summing up………… • The problems associated with drylands are the source of some of the major issues that India is grappling with • The drylands have consistently been facing neglect regarding their case both in the public as well as policy domain • The issue of economically sustainable farming in drylands is compounded by the diverse nature of the drylands encountered in India • The drylands pose a set of problems which however can be tackled and the drylands can also be harnessed successfully to yield profitable results.

15. Learning's • Drylands present problems before us which if addressed could rid India of some of the major troubles constraining it • Success stories of sustainable livelihood in drylands highlights that despite constraints we can even still use limited resources to attain sustainability • Managing drylands teaches us that no effort of sustainability in this respect can succeed if there is no constructive and united effort by the concerned community • Drylands present before us a diverse set of problems and there is no one-size-fits all solution to the problems of the concerned areas. Each constituency had to be addressed on a case to case basis

16. REFERENCES Primary refernce text THE FORSAKEN DRYLANDS ,SEMINAR, Issue No. 564, August 2006. Secondary Reference Text • Oswal M C, Watershed Management for Dryland Agriculture, Associated Publishing Company, 1999 • Resource Management  in Rainfed Drylands: An Information Kit, MYRADA, 2002 • State of the Indian Farmer: Rainfed Agriculture, Government of India, Ministry of Agriculture, Academic Foundation, 2004. Internet Sources • www.indiaagronet.com • www.crops.confex.com

17. Thank You!!! -Amit Kumar (07) -Achin Bansal (05)