Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (Ministry of Agriculture)

The states of Assam, Bihar, eastern U.P, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bengal, Orissa were allocated extra funds in the last year for this purpose.

 Rainfed areas account for nearly 57 per cent of the agricultural land in India. These areas assume special significance in terms of ecology, agricultural productivity and livelihoods for millions. With proper management, rainfed areas have the potential of contributing a larger share to food grain production.

The budget allocates Rs 300 crores under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) for this scheme. This project will supplement the ongoing work on pulses development under the National Food Security Mission. There is also an emphasis on building institutions that would provide market linkage to the grower of pulses. The states of M.P, U.P, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan, and Tamilnadu were chosen for this programme. These states together constitute nearly 96% of area where pulses are grown.

This document on the management of drought during 2009 published by the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation of the Ministry of Agriculture presents the deficiency and erratic behavior of rainfall, impact of drought, mitigation efforts initiated and their results. During the deficient and erratic rainfall of South-West monsoon 2009, fourteen States declared drought/ drought like situation/ scarcity in 338 districts of the country.

This manual developed by the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) presents a comprehensive approach to drought management and recommends measures that can be implemented for effective drought relief and mitigation. It brings together conceptual issues, institutional framework & operational details, and replaces the colonial famine codes written largely for dealing with hunger and starvation.

It has been prepared with the objective of creating synergy between the various programmes being implemented to provide drought relief and mitigation by several levels of government.

The key issues covered in the manual are:

The Uttaranchal decentralised watershed development project was being implemented (1999 – 2005) with World Bank assistance in the state.

This is the first ever national agriculture policy (2000) of India and seeks to actualise the vast untapped growth potential of Indian agriculture, strengthen rural infrastructure to support faster agricultural development, promote value addition, accelerate the growth of agro business, create employment in rural areas, secure a fair standard of living for the farmers and agricultural workers a