The book “Dryland Agriculture and Watershed Management” is written in simple English for better understanding about Dryland agriculture, Dryland farming and watershed management practices to undergraduate and post-graduate students of agriculture sciences. The basic objective of the book is to clear doubts about dryland and dry farming agriculture. The book gives a summarised knowledge about his two history, development and various practices to control soil erosion and drought. The whole handy book is divided into 9 chapters. chapter 1. describes about primary introduction of dryland agriculture. chapter 2. describes soil and water conservation techniques, whereas chapter 3. describes drought. chapter 4. describes strategies for mitigation of drought. Chapter 5 & 6 written to understand water harvesting and management. chapter 7. describes about contigent crop planning for aberrant weather conditions. A special chapter on Land policy (chapter 8) reviews the present and future land policy and different programmes, measures taken by Goverment to combat drought. The book is handy and written to satisfy the competitive aspirant opinion for various competitive exams and theory aspects. Authors hope that book will be extremely important for agronomists, soil scientist, crop scientist, post-graduate, graduate students of agriculture and allied subjects. It is also important for colleges, universities, institutions/libraries.
Ms. Kawaljeet Kaur is working as an Assistant Professor, Department of Agriculture, CT Group of Institutions, Jalandhar, Punjab, India. Since 2019 teaching undergraduate students. She has obtained B.Sc. (Hons.) Agriculture (2017) with first class and completed M.Sc. Soil Science and Agriculture Chemistry in the year 2019 with first class as well from Lovely Professional University. She got Young Scientist and Young Soil Scientist Award in the year 2021. She has attended more than 5 National and International level conference and also attended more than 50 National and International webinars, workshops, and online quiz, certification programmers. She has published 15 research papers and review papers in reputed journals, 15 popular articles, 10 book chapters and more than 7 books.
Dr. Subhash Chand is presently working as a Professor in the Division of Soil Science, Sher-E-Kashmir University of Agriculture Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Shalimar Campus, Srinagar, UT of Jammu and Kashmir. He has 20 years experience of research, teaching and extension. He has been Councillor, North for ISSS & LUP, Nagpur, 2014-15. He is a nominated member of Association of Soil and Water Conservationist 2022-23.
Mr. Dheer Pratap is Ph.D. Scholar from Department of Agriculture IIAST Integral University, Lucknow. He has completed his B.Sc. Agriculture (Hons.) from CSA University of Agriculture & Technology, Kanpur 2016 with first class and completed M.Sc. (Ag.) Agronomy in the year 2018 with first class as well from Monad University, Hapur. Mr. Dheer Pratap also got the best research scholar award from ATDS, Ghaziabad in 2022. He has published more than 5 popular articles, 2 book chapters and 5 research papers.
Mr. Akash Bhargaw is a Research Assistant working in VastuVihar Biotech. He has completed his B.Sc. (Agriculture) from CSJMU, Kanpur and M.Sc. from Lovely professional University, Jalandhar in agronomy. He has published 3 research papers and two reviews paper, 7 articles. He has attended 3 international and national conference and qualified ICAR NET in Agronomy in 2022.
1. Introduction to Rainfed Agriculture, Dryland Agriculture ..... 1
1.1 Dryland Agriculture in India ................................................... 1
1.2 Need for Dryland Agriculture in India .................................. 2
1.3 Solution to Improve Efficiency and Productivity of Dryland Agriculture ...................... 2
1.4 History of Dryland/Rainfed Agriculture .............................. 6
1.5 Soil and Climatic Conditions in Rainfed Agriculture........ 10
1.5.1 Characteristics of Dryland Soils ................................. 10
1.5.2 Climatic Constraints ..................................................... 11
1.5.3 Tropical Drylands ......................................................... 12
1.5.4 True Deserts.................................................................... 12
2. Soil and Water Conservation Techniques .................................. 13
2.1 Major Control Measures.......................................................... 14
2.1.1 Summer Ploughing ....................................................... 14
2.1.2 Tillage .............................................................................. 14
2.1.3 Choice of Crops ............................................................. 14
2.1.4 Ridges & Furrows.......................................................... 14
2.1.5 Contour Farming ........................................................... 15
2.1.6 Ploughing Across the Slope ......................................... 15
2.1.7 Cover Crops.................................................................... 15
2.1.8 Organic Matter Addition ............................................. 16
2.1.9 Strip Cropping ............................................................... 16
2.1.10 Mulching ......................................................................... 16
2.1.11 Rotations of Crops ........................................................ 16
2.1.12 Planting of Grasses for stabilizing bundhs ............... 17
2.1.13 Planting of Tress and afforestation ............................ 17
2.2 Mechanical Practices................................................................ 17
3. Drought and Mitigation................................................................... 27
3.1 Introduction ............................................................................... 27
3.2 Mitigation of Drought.............................................................. 29
3.3 Crop Adaptation to Drought ................................................. 30
4. Strategies for Drought Management ........................................... 33
5. Water Harvesting .............................................................................. 35
5.1 Water Harvesting ..................................................................... 35
5.2 Importance of Water Harvesting ........................................... 36
5.3 Types of Water Harvesting ..................................................... 36
5.4 Water Harvesting Techniques ................................................ 37
5.5 Floodwater Harvesting ............................................................ 43
5.6 Groundwater Harvesting ........................................................ 45
5.7 Runoff vs. Floodwater Harvesting ........................................ 46
6. Watershed Management ................................................................. 47
6.1 Concept of Watershed Management .................................... 47
6.2 Classification of Watershed .................................................... 48
6.3 Major Problems of Watershed ................................................ 49
6.4 Principles of Watershed Management.................................. 50
6.5 Objectives of Watershed Management ................................. 50
6.6 Component of Watershed Management .............................. 52
6.7 Arid Regions .............................................................................. 57
6.8 Semi-arid Regions ..................................................................... 58
6.9 Crop Management ................................................................... 58
6.10 Different Agroforestry System ............................................... 61
6.11 Landuse Classification ............................................................. 62
6.12 Forms of Water Erosion ........................................................... 67
6.13 Types of Water Erosion ........................................................... 70
6.14 Mechanics of Water Erosion Control .................................... 74
6.15 Agronomical Measures of Water Erosion Control ............. 76
6.16 Mulching .................................................................................... 78
7. Contingent Crop Planning for Aberrant Weather Conditions ................................... 81
8. Land Degradation and Land Policy .............................................. 88.
1 Causes of Land Degradations ................................................ 85
8.2 Land Use Policy Incentives in India ..................................... 87
8.3 National Watershed Development Projects for Rainfed Areas (NWDPRA) ............. 92
8.3.1 Introduction of the Scheme ......................................... 92
8.3.2 AIMS and Objectives .................................................... 93
8.3.3 Criteria for Selection ..................................................... 94
8.3.4 Approach and Strategy ............................................... 95
8.4 Soil Conservation in RVP & FPR ........................................... 95
8.5 Information Systems ..............................................................106
8.6 Different Consequences & Environmental Issues of 21st Century............................129
8.7 Agenda 21 (Sustainable Development) ..............................132
References.................................................................................136
9. MCQs, Fill in the Blank ................................................................141
Glossary ..............................................................................................149
Abbreviations used in the text .......................................................161
