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News Alerts | INCLUDE RAIN-FED FARMING IN AGRICULTURE POLICY

INCLUDE RAIN-FED FARMING IN AGRICULTURE POLICY

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published Published on Aug 20, 2009   modified Modified on Aug 20, 2009

 

The 2009 drought has once again highlighted the need for farming drought hardy crops such as millets and coarse grains instead of water guzzling paddy and wheat in the country’s water deficient areas. Officially, about 70 per cent of India’s cultivable land is un-irrigated and falls in the country’s most backward dry-lands. It is a proven fact that India’s rich diversity of resilient millet crops are the farmer’s best protection against drought, particularly in the less fertile and water-deficient regions.

 

But our policies are taking us exactly in the opposite direction. For instance, offering cheap wheat and rice -- and not the drought-resistant millets -- to the BPL families under soon-to-be-launched Right to Food Act is pushing farmers to sow paddy at their own peril. There is no move to include the high-nutrition millets in mid day meal scheme either. The government is not even contemplating a ban on summer crop of paddy despite it resulting in a dramatic depletion of groundwater.

About 91 low-rainfall districts fall under the category of dry-lands, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). These also happen to be the most drought prone districts not covered by any irrigation scheme and entirely dependent on rain-fed farming. The importance of the rain-fed areas for India’s agriculture policy could be gauged by the fact that India’s 42 per cent food grain, 81 per cent of pulses and 90 per cent of oilseeds are also grown in rain-fed areas. For records, 84 per cent of India’s poor live in rain-fed areas.

The first two of the following briefs, made available by the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (www.csa-India.org), give an idea of the enormity of the situation. The following link contains an executive summary of a Planning Commission Steering Committee report on Agriculture identifying causes for dismal state of agriculture in India. The last link is of an internationally acclaimed paper on rain-fed agriculture in India. (Please copy and paste links when unable to open directly).

1. Dryland agri-concise  

2. A land well tended finally yields

3. http://www.rainfedfarming.org/documents/Policy/Policy1.pdf

4. http://www.rainfedfarming.org/documents/Information/JohnKerr_Paper.pdf

 


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