Rainfed Agriculture

Featured Articles
August 10, 2022
Taming water - Irrigation and drought protection in colonial India and the present
The irrigation at all costs mindset and narrow policies for drought protection during the colonial rule ignored rainfed agriculture and local practices that sustained agriculture in the Bombay Deccan. This continues even today.
Recurrent droughts and the struggle for survival (Image Source: Gaurav Bhosale via Wikimedia Commons):
June 19, 2022
Hidden treasure: Adivasi’s traditional food diversity
Odisha Millets Mission is trying to bring back the glory of millets in tribal areas
A range of millet recipes and ready to cook items are sold by Millets on Wheels in Jashipur block in Mayurbhanj district. This initiative is supported by Odisha Millets Mission (Image: Odisha Millets Mission)
May 25, 2022
Non pesticide management – a viable alternative
A study assesses the impact of the Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming programme
The APCNF policy promotes zero synthetic chemical inputs (Image: Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming Facebook Page)
April 24, 2021
Scaling up sustainable agriculture critical to improve farm incomes
Study by CEEW proposes several measures for promoting sustainable agricultural practices and systems, including restructured government support and rigorous evidence generation
SRI rice field (Image: Wikimedia Commons; CC BY-SA 4.0)
April 1, 2021
COVID-19 and social protection: Impact in the agriculture sector
Lower transaction costs, minimal leakages, and immediate delivery make a strong case for direct cash transfers, says study.
Access to credit increased farmers' expenditures on farm-related activities. (Image: Pixy.org)
March 12, 2021
Strengthening the frontline for water security
Challenges and aspirations of community champions and how programs can address them
Kalyani Dash works with 150 households in the village directly and trains them on chemical-free farming techniques, water secure crop production, efficient water use in agriculture for a sustainable farming future as well as kitchen and nutrition gardening. (Image: FES)
Lockdown puts citymakers at risk
The forced exodus of the migrants who built our cities indicates how they were shortchanged on every front.
Impact and Policy Research Institute
Posted on 28 May, 2020 01:22 PM

Suddenly thrown out of work by a nationwide lockdown, the migrants who built our cities and our economies were forced to take the torturous walk away from the cities to their homes in rural India.
A worker at a construction site (Image: ILO/ Joydeep Mukherjee; NC-ND 3.0 IGO License)
Covid-19 could push 260 million Indians into poverty: Research
News this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 20 May, 2020 10:42 AM

Nearly 260 million Indian could be pushed to poverty due to Covid-19: Researchers
Covid-19 could push 260 million Indians into poverty (Image Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Covid-19: Managing the disaster in rural India
There is a need to rethink our disaster management policies and the top-down approach that it follows.
Priyanka Tajane
Posted on 17 May, 2020 09:45 PM

With an attempt to contain the spread of deadly Covid-19, Indian government had announced a complete nation-wide lockdown from March 25 onwards. For the first time, the provisions of the National Disaster Management Act, 2005, were invoked since the law came into being after the 2004 tsunami.
Drought in Marathwada (Image: Flickr Commons)
Ensuring food security in times of Covid-19
A study conducted in 47 districts indicates that over half of the surveyed households are eating less during lockdown.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 15 May, 2020 02:37 PM

The study, ‘Covid-19 induced lockdown - How is hinterland coping’, based on a large survey undertaken by a consortium of civil society organisations undertook a rapid assessment of the impact of series of lockdowns on rural poor households.
The prolonged lockdown has increased the dependence of farmers on food supply through the public distribution system as well as the need to grow a good crop in kharif season. (Image: UNESCO)
Coping with Covid-19: Options before small and marginal farmers of rainfed regions
There is a need to have basic institutional structures such as market, credit, insurance, research, extension service etc., in place in rainfed regions.
Biswanath Sinha
Kuntal Mukherjee
Posted on 09 May, 2020 03:11 PM

The global crisis due to Covid-19 has hit India after coursing through western Europe. India’s response to curtail the spread of the disease was quite decisive.
Community economies - Reconstructing rural economy with ecological sustainability and ethics of equity
Collective management, participation and equity are the foundations on which community economies are sustained.
Ranjita Mohanty
Posted on 08 May, 2020 05:59 PM

The exodus of migrant workers from urban areas back to their villages in the wake of country wide lockdown has brought rural poverty into sharp focus. Reconstruction of rural economy therefore needs policy and planning attention.
Johads in Nanduwali nadi region (Image: Farhad Contractor, IWP Flickr)
Village institutions take a lead in Covid-19 response
Institutions are a key arsenal in rural India's pandemic fight.
Kiran Singh
Foundation for Ecological Security (FES)
Posted on 07 May, 2020 09:23 PM

Covid-19 will have major implications in rural areas where the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), a non-profit organisation has been working towards conservation of natural resources through collective action of local communities. Experience indicates that the complete lockdown to contain the spread of the disease has resulted in loss of rural incomes.
In the light of disrupted food supply systems, especially for fresh produce, the village institution arranged for harvesting and sale of produce. (Image: FES)
Self sufficiency in the times of Covid-19
Utthan promotes self-sufficient food production areas with internal dependencies, as the pandemic causes disruptions from food to fork.
Nafisa Barot
Pallavi Sobti Rajpal
Utthan
Posted on 02 May, 2020 11:26 AM

Reshamben, Manguben and Naseemben, strong women leaders of Vanita Shakti Mahila Sangathan and Ekta Mahila Sangathan, have always argued that government ration shops under the public distribution system should purchase all essential foodgrains from the local area, to the extent possible.
A ‘people to people’ social solidarity enterprise in the times of Covid-19 (Image: Utthan)
Covid-19: Implications for watershed management
Watershed work needs to be stepped up to ensure that the lockdown does not impact the livelihoods of the rural poor.
Partik Kumar
RRA Network
Posted on 16 Apr, 2020 04:47 PM

Over the last four decades, watershed management has emerged as one of the most decentralised, integrated, persisting, innovative and effective programs to enhance natural resources such as water, soil and the vegetative cover as well as to provide means of livelihood to marginalised sections in rural areas.
COVID-19 has adversely affected this year's watershed management work (Image: ILO South Asia-Pacific; Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
COVID-19 lockdown: Health of Ganga and Yamuna rivers improves
News this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 08 Apr, 2020 01:05 PM

Lockdown impact: Health of water bodies improves
Ganga river at Kachla, Uttar Pradesh (Source: IWP Flickr Photos)
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