Dryland Agriculture

All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture (AICRPDA), Hyderabad was launched by Indian Council of Agricultural Research during 1970 with 23 Cooperative Centres Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA) during 1985. Another scheme All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture (on agrometeorology has been functioning at CRIDA for the past two decades. Research efforts went deep into real issues to tackle the problems of drylands in India which covers to the extent of 65 per cent of total cultivated area of 142.8 million hectares. The contribution to national food production has declined from 80 per cent in 1951 to <40 per cent at present. Generally the productivity is much higher in irrigated lands in addition to assured harvest of crop and income unlike in drylands which has been affected with vagaries of monsoon. Hence, research efforts to sustain production and income to dryland farmers has been going in and at present there are different technologies available to farmers who has chance to choose any package/component of technology based on his needs, choices, socio-economic, agronomic conditions because technologies are highly location and categories of farmers’ specific which needs careful selection and adoption for higher income. Even government of Canada supported AICRPDA by sending experts and sanctioning the budget for construction of buildings, in addition to supplying equipments, machinery, etc. and expert’s advice in research issues/projects. The experts of Canada were in AICRPDA/CRIDA during 1970-85. This period was divided into three phases, viz., first phase (1970-75), second phase (1976-80) and third phase (1981-85). In first phase research projects covered identification of crops and varieties, cropping systems (inter/sequence crops), soil and tillage and crop establishment practises, fertilizer use, weed control aspects, etc. In second phase, the joint collaboration of Indo-Canada Project covered location specific integrated activities, cropping systems pulses, oilseeds, cereals, millets, full utilization of agronomic practises, fertilizer placement, etc., whereas in third phase, research on rainwater management (in-situ and ex-situ) appropriate cropping systems, integrated nutrient management, fertilizer use efficiency, management of natural resources, etc, were covered. The Canadian experts lefts CRIDA later. CRIDA with 23 centres carried out research programmes on alternate land use systems, refinement, cropping systems, etc. based on understanding the environment and socio-economic-agronomic conditions, watershed management under different agro-eco regions during 1986-90. Subsequently, all efforts were put on sustainable agriculture, resource characterization, soil fertility and nutrient/energy management, mechanization, watershed development programme for sustainable crop production and income generation, transfer of technologies, evaluation of technologies, etc. Hence, it is felt that there is a need to write a book based on results at CRIDA, AICRPDA centers (22) and AICRPAM centers (25) and experiences of authors who discussed with a number of scientists individually and on different forums. Thus, it is an outcome of the experiences of authors in dryland agriculture research during the past 3 decades.