Q. What is dry-land agriculture? Discuss its importance in India? (42 BPSC/1999)

Q. What is dry-land agriculture? Discuss its importance in India? (42 BPSC/1999)

Ans: Dryland farming is agricultural techniques for the non-irrigated cultivation of crops. Drylands are areas with low soil moisture, high evapotranspiration which results in water deficit prevailing throughout the year. These areas are prone to drought and have scarce water-resources. Dry-land farming in India is thus defined broadly to cover rainfed agricultural operation dominated by low water requiring crops in the arid and semi-arid tropical regions of the country. This type of farming is practiced in regions inherently marginal for non-irrigated agriculture.
Types of Dryland Agriculture: Depending on the amount of rainfall received, dryland agriculture has been grouped into three categories.

• Dry farming:
  • It is production of crops without irrigation in areas where annual rainfall is less than 750 mm.
  • Crop failures are more frequent under dry farming condition owing to prolonged dry spells during crop period.
  • It is generally practiced in arid regions of the country.
• Dryland farming:
  • cultivation of crops in areas receiving rainfall above 750 mm is known as dryland farming.
  • Dry spell during crop duration occurs, but crop failures are less frequent. Semi-arid regions are included under this category.
• Rainfed farming:
  • It is practice of crop cultivation without irrigation in areas receiving 1150 mm rainfall, mostly in sub-humid and humid areas.
  • Here chances of crop failure and water stress are very less.

How is it done:

• Dryland farming has evolved as a set of techniques and management practices used by farmers to continually adapt to the presence or lack of moisture in a given crop cycle.
• Capturing and conservation of moisture:
  • In order to catch early showers, first the ploughing and harrowing operations are done. The second ploughing and harrowing operations are done during the rainy season in order to open the soil to the relatively heavier rain.
    • The ploughing and harrowing operations are done for preventing loss of land moisture by evaporation.
  • Preventing runoff by terracing fields,
  • Eliminating weeds which absorb moisture from the soil,
  • and leaving crop residue to shade the soil.
• Effective use of available moisture:
  • Once moisture is available for the crop to use, it must be used as effectively as possible. Seed planting depth and timing are carefully considered to place the seed at a depth at which sufficient moisture exists, or where it will exist when seasonal precipitation falls.
  • Farmers tend to use crop varieties which are drought-tolerant and heat-stress tolerant (even lower-yielding varieties).
• Soil conservation:
  • The nature of dryland farming makes it particularly susceptible to erosion, especially wind erosion.
  • Erosion control techniques such as windbreaks, reduced tillage or no-till, spreading straw (or other mulch on particularly susceptible ground), and strip farming are used to minimize topsoil loss.
• Control of input costs:
  • Dryland farming is practiced in regions inherently marginal for non-irrigated agriculture. Because of this, there is an increased risk of crop failure and poor yields which may occur in a dry year.
  • Dryland farmers must evaluate the potential yield of a crop constantly throughout the growing season and be prepared to decrease inputs to the crop such as fertilizer and weed control if it appears that it is likely to have a poor yield due to insufficient moisture. Conversely, in years when moisture is abundant, farmers may increase their input efforts and budget to maximize yields and to offset poor harvests.

Characteristics of Dry-Land Farming:

• Uncertain, ill-.distributed and limited annual rainfall
• Low agricultural productivity,
• High degree of vulnerability to vagaries of nature,
• Instability in output,
• Complete dependence on rains,
  • Dryland farming is dependent on natural rainfall, which can leave the ground vulnerable to dust storms, particularly if poor farming techniques are used or if the storms strike at a particularly vulnerable time.
• Application of traditional agricultural methods and
• Requirements of low assets level.
• Practice of extensive agriculture i.e. prevalence of mono cropping etc
• Relatively large size of fields.
• Similarity in types of crops raised by almost all the farmers of a particular region;
• Poor market facility for the produce

Importance in India:

• with continuous growth of population, the amount of cultivable land is gradually becoming insufficient.
• More over 40% of food grains production comes from dry lands.
  • India will need 308.5 m tons of food grains by 2030 to feed the population. Hence Dry Land agriculture management becomes very much significant. -> to meet the food security.
• According to Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas published by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), 29.32% of geographical area in India was undergoing desertification.
• The share of agriculture in the economy is declining. However, the number of people dependent on agriculture continues to rise. “From 80 per cent in 1951, it has come down to 48 per cent. However, 48 per cent of 1.3 billion people means two times the population of the United States.
• Almost 65 per cent (two-third)of India’s arable land area of around 140 million hectares is classified as rainfed.
  • Farming operations in such lands are mostly characterised by low productivity, high risk and poor adoption of modern technology/agronomic practices.
  • Yet, they are home to some 61 per cent of our farmers and their livelihood depend on success or failure of the crops, and
  • They account for 88 per cent of the country’s grossed cropped area under pulses, 69 per cent under oilseeds and 42 per cent under paddy (Agriculture Census 2011).
  • Dry land agriculture occupy 60% of cultivated area and supports 40% of human population and 60 % livestock population.
• At present, 3 ha of dry land crop produce cereal grain equivalent to that produced in one ha irrigated crop.
• Since regions under irrigated agriculture are already facing problem due to nutrient exhaustion, salinity build up and over use of fertilizers. So it is imperative to produce more from dry land while conserving existing resources.
• Dry lands offer good scope for development of agro forestry, social forestry, Horti – sylvi-pasture and such other similar systems which will not only supply food, fuel to the village people and fodder to the cattle but forms a suitable vegetative cover for ecological maintenance.
• Production of pulses, in particular, is concentrated in the rainfed tracts of central, southern and western India, where the soils are thin with little organic matter to retain moisture for extended periods.
  • the absence of snow-fed rivers in this region that make them unsuitable for extensive canal-based irrigation.
• Dryland agriculture is important for the economy as most of the coarse grain crops, pulses, oilseeds, and raw cotton are grown on these lands. It also contribute significantly to wheat and rice production.
  • Major dry farming crops are:
    • Millets such as jwar, bajra, ragi,
      • By enhancing the productivity of crops like jowar, bajraand ragi which are mainly grown in dryland farming would increase the nutrient consumption levels of our nation. => helpful in eliminating the problem of hunger and malnutrition.
    • Oilseeds like mustard, rapeseed,
      • The improvement of production of oilseeds in these regions will save valuable foreign exchange reserves.
    • Pulse crops like pigeon pea , gram and lentil.
    • 70% of cotton is produced through dryland agriculture.
  • Dryland areas also contribute significantly to wheat and rice production.
• Day by day the area under cultivation is contracting to meet the developmental need of nation. So the future will depend on how efficiently Dry Land Agriculture is managed.

Challenges of Dry Land Agriculture:

• Moisture stress and uncertain rainfall
• Inefficient storage of rain water
• Disposal of dry farming produce
• Use of limited crop varieties
• Problem in application of manure and fertilizers
• Inferior quality of farm produce
• Monsoon irregularity.
• Increasing water scarcity.
• Extremely poor condition of farmers, lack of infrastructure to boost production.
• Dryland areas suffer from various process of soil degradation especially soil erosion.
• Government expenditure is largely focused towards irrigated regions.

Steps needed:

• Conjunctive use of rainfall, surface and ground water.
• Harvesting of water for use in dry periods.
• Soil conservation by contour bunding, terracing, land sloping and land levelling and also by practicing conservational tillage (zero tillage and minimum tillage).
• Practice of drip irrigation to save water.
• Lining of canals to minimize water loss.
• Agronomic practices like mixed cropping and crop rotation which increase the yield of crops need to be practiced.
• Integrated nutrient management need to be practiced with special emphasis on use of bio-fertilizers to maintain the soil fertility.
• For the non-farm operation dryland areas have to be supplemented with non-form occupation like animal husbandry, fisheries, poultry, social forestry and cottage for the development of these areas.

Steps taken:

• The Centre and the Planning Commission, had back in the 1960s realised that it wasn’t possible to support agriculture growth in the rainfed regions by replicating the input-intensive strategy adopted in the better-endowed Green Revolution belt of north-western India or even the larger Indo-Gangetic plains.
  • Thus, a series of initiatives were launched to take a natural resource management (NRM) based approach for promoting farm growth in rainfed areas.
  • Schemes such as the Drought Prone Areas Programme and the Desert Development Programme were implemented in select watersheds to demonstrate the benefits of a holistic and integrated NRM-based approach.
• THE NATIONAL Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA) is working on developing a comprehensive drought-proofing action plan for 24 districts in Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
  • The NRAA will develop similar action plans for other 151 districts.
• The Dalwai committe in its report on doubling farmers income (DFI) also recommended the using dry land farming in drought prone districts.
• The watershed management schemes to capture rainfall and runoff on and near the farmer’s field, thereby extending the period of water availability.
• The Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY).
• Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture takes up research actions.

Notes:

• Agriculture:
  • For over the past 10 years, India has stopped being an agricultural economy. Today, only one-third of the rural economy forms agricultural economy.
    • The manufacturing, service and agriculture sector is roughly in the 1:3 ratio.
  • If today Indian farmers are facing any problem, it’s not because of production but more their ability to monetise the produce. Today, Indian farms produce 1.3 billion tonnes of agricultural produce. We have all kinds of agro-climatic zones in the country. India is vast in terms of its arable land, only next to the United States.
  • While agriculture had done well in India, the farmer had not.
    • “We’re in the situation where we have surpluses exceeding the demand and therefore the market prices are not good. With the global commodity prices further backward, the situation has got compounded. Experts have also pointed to the fact that our food security, based on carbohydrates, is just one-sixth part of nutritional security.”