ABSTRACT
One of the most challenging policy issues for a long time has been conservation and management of land and water resources for sustainable agriculture and poverty reduction, specifically in rainfed areas. Rainfed agriculture contributes 60% of world’s staple food and is being practiced on 80% of the world’s agricultural area (FAOSTAT 2005). Water is a limiting factor in achieving food production (crop growth) in semi-arid and dry subhumid zones (SEI 2005). Nearly two-thirds of India’s agriculture is based on rainfed areas and contributes about 9% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)1. As the source of growth in irrigated areas declines, rainfed agriculture must increase to fill the gap. The recent Comprehensive Assessment of Water for Food and Water for Life showed that challenges of poverty and food security with looming water scarcity cannot be met by irrigated agriculture alone, and major gains have to come through upgrading rainfed agriculture (Molden 2007) and recent forecasts warn of aggravated global water scarcity unless effective water resource management at all levels is done (Seckler et al., 1998; Seckler and Amarsinghe 2000; Shiklomanov 2000; Rosegrant et al., 2002, 2006; Falkenmark and Rockström 2004; SEI 2005). In most rainfed areas, water availability is not a problem but rainfall distribution and poor management creates water scarcity for crops, resulting in low rainwater use efficiency and low crop production (Wani et al., 2003a)2.
