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)
Groundwater in 30 districts in Delhi-NCR contaminated, reveals 2019 data
News this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 12 Mar, 2020 02:31 PM

30 districts in Delhi-NCR had contaminated groundwater in 2019: Water Minister
A resident in Delhi with her extracted groundwater (Source: IWP FLickr photos)
Suffering in silence: Migrant cane cutters of Maharashtra
Overworked, poorly paid and deprived of any rights, migrant cane cutters, especially women are most vulnerable and continue to suffer from a number of health and security risks.
Pooja Adhikari
Vani Shree
Posted on 27 Feb, 2020 10:04 PM

Maharashtra is the second largest sugar producing state in India, after Uttar Pradesh where as high as 1.6 million farmers cultivate sugarcane on 0.7 million hectares of land. The sugarcane industry provides direct employment to about 0.16 million workers while 1.5 million workers engage in sugarcane harvesting and transport operations every year.
Women workers suffer the most (Image Source: Azhar Feder, Wikimedia Commons-CC-BY-SA-3.0)
Decentralised groundwater governance to deal with the groundwater crisis
Decentralised groundwater governance frameworks that integrate democratic institutional mechanisms are needed to deal with the current groundwater crisis in India.
Aarti Kelkar Khambete
Harshavardhan Dhawan
Posted on 17 Feb, 2020 05:43 PM

The challenges to sustain groundwater dependency in India are many where groundwater over extraction is not only leading to rapid depletion of the resource, but also giving rise to water quality issues in a situation where the response at the level of policy continues to be lukewarm.
The need for decentralised governance to deal with the current groundwater crisis (Image Source: ACWADAM)
Decoding budget 2020
Is the budget a bummer? Experts speak at a panel discussion organised by CBGA.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 10 Feb, 2020 04:35 PM

“Every single number in the budget, be it receipts or expenditure is a lie. The budget numbers can no longer be trusted, as the difference between actual expenditure and budget estimates are off by around 25 percent.
Woman farmer sifting grain (Image: Ray Witlin/World Bank CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
What's there for water in the budget kitty?
Budget fails to allocate enough to turn the rhetoric of tap water to each household into reality.
Partik Kumar
RRA Network
Posted on 02 Feb, 2020 01:46 PM

Union Finance Minister Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman presented the decade's first union budget in the parliament on 1st February 2020. While presenting budget for 2020-2021, she started with the country’s vision for the decade in which she emphasised on water management and clean rivers as one of the 10 points of vision for the country.
The budget allocation suggests that the predominant focus of the Ministry of Jal Shakti continues to be on water resources development rather than water resources governance or management (Image: Brian Gratwicke, Flickr Commons, CC BY 2.0)
The Karnataka State Water Policy 2019
The Karnataka Jnana Aayoga (KJA) set up a Task Group to draft a new water policy for Karnataka in December 2017 and the report is now in public domain. What are the suggestions that the report makes?
Aarti Kelkar Khambete
Posted on 20 Jan, 2020 11:42 AM

The water crisis in Karnataka has not only led to severe agrarian distress in the eastern plains region but also created an acute shortage of domestic water, in both rural and urban areas. The 21st century has seen significant changes in demography, economy and agriculture, increasing the demand for water in the state.
Groundwater depletion, a growing challenge (Image Source: India Water Portal)
Is zero budget natural farming the way forward?
Zero budget natural farming can lead to huge savings in fertiliser subsidy, says study
Niti Gupta
Saurabh Tripathi
Hem H Dholakia
Posted on 11 Jan, 2020 12:16 PM

A recent study by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water offers insights into Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) vis-à-vis its effect on the economics of agriculture in Andhra Pradesh.
Alternative agriculture practice called zero-budget natural farming being popularised in Andhra Pradesh by Rythu Sadhikara Samstha, Government of Andhra Pradesh (Image: Council on Energy, Environment and Water)
Water policy for rainfed areas
The new national water policy should take up a comprehensive and integrated view of water resources development with a focus on rainfed areas.
Revitalising Rainfed Agriculture Network
Posted on 10 Jan, 2020 12:12 PM

A committee has been constituted to draft a new National Water Policy (NWP) and make key changes in the water governance structure and regulatory framework. It is chaired by Mihir Shah, who is a former Planning Commission member and a water expert. The committee is expected to produce a report within six months.
Public investments on water in rainfed areas have much higher social rate of returns (Image: Kannan, Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Aerosols and droughts: Is there a connection?
A study finds that high levels of aerosols in the atmosphere further worsen the impacts of El Nino on the rainfall leading to increased frequency of droughts in India.
Suvarna Fadnavis
T. P. Sabin
Chaitri Roy
Matthew Rowlinson
Alexandru Rap
Jean-Paul Vernier & Christopher E. Sioris
Posted on 29 Dec, 2019 04:19 PM

Droughts are becoming common in India
The role of aerosols in triggering droughts (Image Source: IWP flickr photos)
Watershed Management Compendium
This compendium by Dr Mihir Kumar Maitra answers all questions that will be of great use to practitioners engaged in both engineering and management aspects of watershed management in the field.
Mihir Kumar Maitra
Posted on 27 Dec, 2019 06:32 PM

This compendium by Mihir Kumar Maitra is a valuable resource for all practitioners engaged in watershed management activities in the field.
Watershed management in India (Image Source: India Water Portal)
Subscribe to Rainfed Agriculture
×