%0 Journal Article
%T Climate Change-land Degradation-food Security Nexus: Addressing India¡¯s Challenge - Climate Change-land Degradation-food Security Nexus: Addressing India¡¯s Challenge - Open Access Pub
%A Inder Abrol
%A Raj Gupta
%J OAP | Home | Journal of Agronomy Research | Open Access Pub
%D 2018
%X Monsoon rains provide relief from the sweltering summer heat conditions, replenish depleted profile moisture to breathe new life in soils. With appropriate management of rain water, Indian summer monsoons boost the level of ¡®reservoir of life¡¯. Our inability to manage spatial and temporal rainfall variation features of deficit and excess rainfall episodes and their interactions with soil variability is a major cause of uncertainty in agricultural production. In the past, entire focus of national efforts was on rainwater harvesting, storage and distribution through canal networks and greater reliance on ground water pumping to meet immediate crop water demands. These approaches have resulted in wide spread problems of natural resource fatigue and unsustainable water supplies. This paper analyses the complexities of climate change-land degradation-food security nexus and suggests the need for adopting alternate approaches emphasising on in situ conservation of rain water and its efficient use such as to reverse the processes that contribute to land degradation in specific landscapes. DOI10.14302/issn.2639-3166.jar-19-3015 Agriculture is practiced in India over a wide range of soil and agroclimatic conditions, and it has provided the basis for co-evolution of different crop production and land use systems to meet food, fibre and other associated needs of the people. Ensuring food security while sustaining the quality of natural resource base was the guiding principle which determined the evolution and adoption of management practices appropriate to mineralogically distinct soils formed in different agro-ecologies. Maintaining the pace of food production at par with population growth rates has always been a matter of serious concern. Notwithstanding rapid and significant gains in food production during the Green Revolution era (1960-1990), concerns for India¡¯s food security continue and call for addition of 6 MT.Yr-1 food grains to its existing food basket 1. Recognising that Indian agriculture is monsoon dependent, country adopted a strategy of creating a public network of storage reservoir based canals and development of ground water for reducing its dependence on monsoon rains. Provision of a reliable irrigation source changed the production environment, enabled widespread adoption of high yielding cultivars, enhanced the use of agri-inputs besides converting 22 million hectares (Mha) of forest, pasture and fallow lands to arable lands. While these measures, undoubtedly, contributed to addressing the urgency of increasing food production within a short
%U https://www.openaccesspub.org/jar/article/1187