Book of Extended summaries ISDA

International Conference on Reimagining Rainfed Agro-ecosystems: Challenges &
Opportunities during 22-24, December 2022 at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad
ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, NICRA, ICAR-CRIDA,
Hyderabad, P.110, ISBN: 978-93-80883-68-8
Samuel, J., Rao, C. A. R., Raju, B. M. K., Reddy, A. A., Pushpanjali, Reddy, A. G. K.,
Kumar, R. N., Osman, M., Singh, V.K. and Prasad, J.V.N.S. 2022. Assessing the
impact of climate resilient technologies in minimizing drought impacts on farm
incomes in drylands. Sustainability, 14, 382.
T2a-02O-1161
Enhancing Water Productivity in Rainfed Agriculture through in-situ and ex-situ Rain
Water Harvesting- NICRA Experiences
B.V. Asewar and M.S.Pendke
Department of Agronomy, Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani 431402
In Marathwada region, out total cultivated area of 57.94 lakh ha, 49.60 lakh ha area is
rainfed. The impact of climate change and variability in the country on agricultural
production is quite evident in the recent years. The weather aberrations like drought and
floods, extreme events like high intense rainfall, hail storms, heat wave, cold wave etc, are
recurrent in most parts of the country during the crop growing periods. The South-West
monsoon account for nearly 75% of the precipitation received in the country and exerts a
strong influence on the kharif food grain production and the economy in terms of agricultural
output, farmers income and price stability. The onset of South west monsoon, the amount of
rainfall and its distribution are crucial factors which influence the performance of agriculture.
The probability of erratic monsoon rains is about 40% which implies that 4 out of 10 years
there would be an adverse impact on the crop production. There is need to develop
appropriate strategies to deal with such eventualities. Many contingency plans are available at
different scales. However, any contingency intervention either technology related (land,
water, soil, crop) or institutional and policy based, which are implemented on a real time
basis in any crop growing season considered as “Real Time Contingency Plan” is the need of
hour to stabilize crop stands, production and income in rainfed regions. Marathwada region
comprising of eight districts (Aurangabad, Beed, Hingoli, Jalna, Latur, Nanded, Osmanabad
and Parbhani) is traditionally a drought-prone region. The region receives annual rainfall in
the range of 500 to 1100 mm and comes under assured rainfall zone (60%), moderately high
rainfall zone (20%) and scarcity zone (20%). The soils in the region are deep black and
medium black. Major kharif crops of the region are cotton, soybean, pigeon pea, sorghum,
green gram black gram, and pearl millet, whereas major rabi rainfed crops are rabi sorghum,
safflower and chickpea. Rainfall is the key variable influencing crop productivity in rainfed
farming. Intermittent and prolonged drought are the major cause of yield reduction in most of
the crops. Based on the farmers need, technical interventions were taken up under NICRA
Climate resilient agriculture for risk mitigation
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