Abstract
India has the largest area of rainfed dryland agriculture globally, with a variety of distinct types of farming systems producing most of its coarse cereals, food legumes, minor millets, and large amounts of livestock. All these are vital for national and regional food and nutritional security. Yet, the rainfed drylands have been relatively neglected in mainstream agricultural and rural development policy. As a result, significant social-ecological challenges overlap in these landscapes: endemic poverty, malnutrition and land degradation. Sustainable intensification of dryland agriculture is essential for helping to address these challenges, particularly in the context of accelerating climate change. In this paper, we present 100 questions that point to the most important knowledge gaps and research priorities. If addressed, these would facilitate and inform sustainable intensification in Indian rainfed drylands, leading to improved agricultural production and enhanced ecosystem services. The horizon scanning method used to produce these questions brought together experts and practitioners involved in a broad range of disciplines and sectors. This exercise resulted in a consolidated set of questions covering the agricultural drylands, organized into 13 themes. Together, these represent a collective programme for new cross- and multi-disciplinary research on sustainable intensification in the Indian rainfed drylands.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 106-127 |
Number of pages | 22 |
Journal | International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability |
Volume | 19 |
Issue number | 2 |
Early online date | 1 Dec 2020 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2021 |
Bibliographical note
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability on 01/12/2020, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14735903.2020.1830530Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.
Keywords
- Drylands
- India
- rainfed agriculture
- sustainable intensification
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Agronomy and Crop Science
- Economics and Econometrics