ABSTRACT
The foothills of the Siwaliks, covering an area of 2,140,000 ha in the states of Punjab (140,000 ha), Haryana (60,000 ha), Himachal Pradesh (1,140,000 ha) and Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) (800,000 ha), represent the most fragile ecosystem of the Himalayan mountain range because of their peculiar geological formations. The lower Siwalik rainfed area of Jammu has unique land, soil and climatic features representative of a semi-arid or sub-humid climate type. However, generally the climate of the whole area is characterized as subtropical (Arora, 2006). About 12% of the total area of the Jammu region constitutes a dry semi-hilly belt (Fig. 1). Soil erosion leading to high runoff, sizeable loss of soil and nutrients is primarily responsible for the low productivity and poor economic status of the farmers in the area. Due to the fragility, marginality, low accessibility and resource heterogeneity, there is little room for enhancing crop productivity with the existing infrastructure facilities and technologies (Sharma and Sharma, 2003). The majority of the soils are coarse textured and highly erodible. The region receives a sufficient amount of annual rainfall, of which about 80 percent occurs in the three months of the monsoon season (July to September) with highly intensive rainstorms.
