Rainfed Agriculture

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May 18, 2024 A case study of women-led climate resilient farming by Swayam Shikshan Prayog
Building the resilience of women farmers (Image: ICRISAT, Flcikr Commons)
February 9, 2023 Reduced allocation to MGNREGA will reduce employment days available, let alone solve the question of payment of pending wages.
Women farmers at work in their vegetable plots near Kullu (Image: Neil Palmer (CIAT)/Wikimedia Commons)
December 28, 2022 This study found that high rainfall, minimum temperature and high irrigation intensity had a negative impact on crop diversification in Himachal Pradesh.
Crop diversification to cope with climate shocks in Himachal Pradesh (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)
August 10, 2022 The irrigation at all costs mindset and narrow policies for drought protection during the colonial rule ignored rainfed agriculture and local practices that sustained agriculture in the Bombay Deccan. This continues even today.
Recurrent droughts and the struggle for survival (Image Source: Gaurav Bhosale via Wikimedia Commons):
July 25, 2022 This first of its kind study found that fragmented water landscapes increased the risk of Japanese Encephalitis by providing more opportunities for mosquito breeding and transmission of the virus from animals to humans via animal hosts.
Stagnant waters can encourage mosquito breeding and increase risk of diseases (Image Source: India Water Portal)
June 19, 2022 Odisha Millets Mission is trying to bring back the glory of millets in tribal areas
A range of millet recipes and ready to cook items are sold by Millets on Wheels in Jashipur block in Mayurbhanj district. This initiative is supported by Odisha Millets Mission (Image: Odisha Millets Mission)
Who is the thirstiest of them all?
A study evaluating the water use efficiency of sugarcane, curry banana and paddy among borewell irrigating farmers finds paddy to be the most inefficient and thirstiest of the three. Posted on 23 Sep, 2020 12:34 PM

Agriculture uses as high as 85 percent of the available water in India of which the irrigated area accounts for nearly 48.8 percent of the 140 million hectare (mha) of agricultural land, while the remaining 51.2 percent is rainfed.

Paddy, a thirsty crop (Image Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Farm ponds need pondering
While farm ponds have often been depicted as magic wands to deal with water scarcity, experiences in Maharashtra show otherwise. Posted on 18 Sep, 2020 09:31 AM

Agriculture and inefficient water use in India

Farm ponds, often touted as magic wands to tackle water scarcity, have raised a number of concerns (Image Source: Ninad Sargar)
Agriculture and food security challenges amid Covid-19
The pandemic has bared our vulnerabilities and shaken our collective consciousness to focus on agriculture and rural economy. Posted on 09 Sep, 2020 03:32 PM

India has seen large scale rural-urban migration of people trying to escape rural distress in the last few decades.

Women farmers produce vegetables through innovative farming practices in Banka, Bihar. They can sell their produce at regional markets, and earn a better income for their families. (Image: USAID, Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Nashik civic body frees Godavari using riverfront development funds
News this week Posted on 08 Sep, 2020 03:57 PM

A civic body frees a river instead of concretising it, for the first time

Godavari river (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Amphan’s impact on farming and livelihood in Sunderbans
Millions of people's homes were swept away and farmlands destroyed during cyclone Amphan in Sunderbans. Posted on 11 Aug, 2020 05:46 PM

The Amphan cyclone has disfigured the lives of people living in the Sundarbans. Houses have been torn apart, farms have been filled with brackish water making the land unsuitable for farming and betel leaves have been destroyed. People in the Sundarbans are in a life-threatening situation with makeshift shacks to live in and no means to earn a living.

Betel (popularly used in paan) plantation is a major occupation in the Sundarbans. Pulak Bhakta is assessing the damage done to his plantation right after Amphan. The plantation is spread over two and a half bigha of land. According to Pulak, the total loss he has suffered is around INR 3 lakhs. Pulak already bears the burden of a loan which he had taken to set up his plantation. His future seems uncertain and bleak now. (Image: WaterAid/ Subhrajit Sen)
Bihar and northeast India reel under floods, Assam worst hit
News this week Posted on 23 Jul, 2020 09:26 AM

Flood batters three northeast states, Assam worst affected

People take a boat to cross the flood-ravaged Brahmaputra (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Tank desiltation scheme in Maharashtra: Policy concerns and way forward
Maharashtra has been implementing the Gaalmukt Dharan, Gaalyukt Shivar Yojana (GDGS) scheme since 2017. How has it fared and what needs to be done to improve it further? Posted on 10 Jul, 2020 02:07 PM

Tank systems of India

Desiltation activities undertaken under the GDGS in Maharahstra (Image Source: NASHIKONWEB.COM)
Surviving in uncertainty
Gram Vikas stepped up to ensure access to adequate food and to strengthen dignified income-earning opportunities for the most vulnerable households. Posted on 08 Jul, 2020 07:33 PM

Uncertainty - the pervasive feeling that all of us have been living with from the middle of March 2020. It's the same in our partner villages in Odisha and Jharkhand. Communities we work with have been facing and overcoming uncertainties all through their lives. But this time, the crisis has put unusual stress on their abilities to cope.

Image: Ajaya Behera
Boosting rural livelihoods using agriculture and MGNREGA amidst Covid-19
Strengthening farm and non-farm livelihoods can pave the way for food and nutritional security. Posted on 28 Jun, 2020 10:13 AM

As the Covid-19 pandemic was leaving deep scars around the globe, it forced governments to take measures to protect citizens and ensure food security for its people. In India, initially, it looked as if the remote rural areas would skirt the pandemic.

MGNREGA can play an important role in integration of migrant labour in the rural economy (Image: Ashutosh Nanda)
Railway stations to be categorised based on wastewater generation
Policy matters this week Posted on 11 Jun, 2020 09:08 PM

Railway stations to be classified based on wastewater generation

A wastewater treatment plant in Bengaluru (Image source: Vishwanath Srikantaiah)
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