Rainfed Agriculture

Together, India, Brazil and South Africa have about 20 per cent of the world’s population. Although the three countries have demonstrated the potential for transformative development in the South, their experience has been marked by key challenges such as relatively high levels of poverty, inequality and food insecurity, problems that persist for significant numbers of people.

There is a potential to build a network of academics and experts from Brazil, India and South Africa, and food security is among the themes of great interest. This paper seeks to contribute to this process by examining pertinent elements of policy dialogue. As regards food security, each of these countries has developed conceptions and orientations that guide their policy agendas. They include distinctive treatments of several multi-dimensional strategies, multi-stakeholder arrangements and rights-based approaches.

. It protects and nourishes the soil. It also saves the water and enriches the ground water reserves.

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Article courtesy: Press Information Bureau

As per the modifications in Para IX of the common guidelines for Watershed Development Projects, 2008, in the multi tier approach, it has been proposed that there would be a multi tier ridge to valley sequenced approach which should be adopted towards the implementation of the Watershed Development Projects.

Although Idukki is generally perceived as a ‘spices district’ and a ‘plantation crop district’, about 95 per cent of the farmers here are small with tribal farmers constituting a substantial component. Public investment in agriculture in this district is very poor and this hampers agricultural progress and rural livelihoods in many ways.

As a result of high cost of production of major crops and its volatile prices, small farmers who constitute the majority of the farming population have accumulated debt burden exceeding 700 crores. More than eighty per cent of this debt is due to crop loans to small and marginal farmers.

The recommendations in this report are made after giving due consideration to ongoing programmes and resources being made available thereof. These are mainly focused on the small, marginal and tribal farmers and other economically disadvantaged sections. The stress is on sustainability of agricultural production systems and strengthening the regional ecology.

Small and marginal farmers are most affected from water stress situations, and need simple, sustainable and effective measures for water conservation and management.

The paper argues that the country needs urgent action to protect the universal right to food, prioritize land reforms, and sustainably revive agrarian productivity.

India is home to a quarter of the world’s hungry people. Since the green revolution, the country has produced enough to feed itself, but it has not yet been able to wipe out mass hunger, which haunts the landscape of the countryside and lurks in the narrow alleys of urban slums.

Currently, 40 per cent of the population is malnourished – a decrease of only 10 per cent over the past three decades. Poor families, who spend more than 60 per cent of their incomes on food, are increasingly struggling to stretch their meagre household budgets. Unfortunately, small farmers have not benefited from high retail prices either, as they usually receive far less for their produce. In fact in the past 15 years, in an unprecedented wave, a quarter of a million farmers crippled by debt have chosen to commit suicide.

The paper also discusses  their future potential and possible impact on national food security of diversification into non-PDS, fruits, vegetables and other commercial crops. This kind of analysis is likely to help planners and policy makers in choosing appropriate policy framework in evolving the strategies for enacting and operationalization of Food Security Act.

With increase in population, income and urbanization, the demand for food grains has also increased and diversified. Although there has been more than four-fold increase in food grain production from 1950-51 (50.82 mt) to 2008-09 (233.88 mt), a large section of our population continues to suffer from malnutrition and inadequacy of food grains. On the other hand degradation of land, water and other natural resources have started impacting production through increased biotic and abiotic stresses.

The survey aims to cover major crops and suggestions to farmers on how to take preventive steps to avoid yield loss. There will also be a special article on improvement in living conditions of the rural people.

Contents

Section-1

Overview:
Enhancing the disaster resilience of agriculture
Prof. M.S. Swaminathan

Drought:
Preparedness to face drought challenges
Dr. V. Rajagopal