Sustainable Development of Rainfed Agriculture

Abstract

On identifying the rainfed districts in the country with less than 30% dependable irrigation, it was found that as many as 326 of the 631 districts studied were rainfed. Various indicators were studied from the latest data as available between rainfed and irrigated districts under arid, semi-arid and humid climatic regimes. These included biotic pressure, landuse, soil erosion and groundwater exploitation. After presenting the state-of-the-art of these two ecoregions, an attempt was made to present the possibilities for sustainable agriculture in rainfed ecosystems. The Government of India opted for Integrated Watershed Management Program (IWMP) as the growth engine for sustainable development in rainfed areas. The importance of smallholders, women and the role of edaphic factors are presented. Land degradation and the role of soil organic matter in sustaining the health of soils with focus on the importance of flora and fauna in soils are discussed. Finally the effect of IWMP on some of the selected indicators is presented, followed by the emerging issues and the way forward for sustainable agriculture in rainfed areas are highlighted. Key words: Smallholders, women in agriculture, land husbandry, soil health, soil biota.