< Previous | Contents | Next >
As stated earlier, agriculture is a highly vulnerable occupation in the scanty rainfall recording areas in which dry farming is practiced.
1. In dry farming areas, water harvesting should be done. The government and other non-govemment agencies should provide the necessary guidance to the people.
2. Seeds of food crops which are drought resistant should be provided to tire farmers at a subsidised rate.
3. Efforts should be made to check soil erosion by adopting soil conservation practices.
4. The farmers should space their crops at a wide gap and there should be regular weeding and hoeing.
5. Seeds of the quick and short duration maturing crops should be developed.
6. Cultivation of crops requiring more moisture should be done in the low lying areas, especially in the lower parts of the catchment.
7. Cotton should be grown only in the areas where rainfall is more dependable or sprinkle irrigation is available.
8. Soil fertility should be enhanced by applying cowdung and compost manures.
9. Repeated tilling of the field is required during the rainy season.
10. Research should be promoted in the dry land farming.
In addition to these, there are many other practices like contour-ploughing, contour-bunding, and field-bunding that help water conservation measures. Practice like mulching prevents evaporation from the soil. Deep placement of manures and fertilisers would help the roots to penetrate deep layers. This, along-with weed control, will help in increasing the yield. The latest advance technology of dry farming is to lay stress on soil moisture and its conservation. It should be noted that in the dry areas, soils suffer from nutrient deficiency, particularly nitrogen. Band placement of fertilisers in sub-soil layers is a good method of helping the roots to go deep for exploiting the conserved moisture. The World Congress on Conservation Agriculture was organised in February 2009 at New Delhi in order to address the issues of improving efficiency, equity and environment in which the problems and prospects of dry farming were also discussed.