The serious crisis in Rainfed Farming warranted the Prime Minister to
announce a relief package for acute distress areas. The rainfed areas,
constituting the major poverty geography of the country, faced a
historical neglect and discrimination in terms of receiving public
support and investments. The rainfed farmer is facing the brunt of
this neglect. The crisis is no longer an issue of increasing
agriculture productivity; it has now become a livelihood issue
affecting millions of farmers. Support in terms of public investments
and subsidies in fertilizers and other inputs, (electricity, micro
irrigation, horticulture, irrigation water supply, credit and price
support etc;) are used mostly by farmers in the ‘irrigated areas’ and
by those having access to irrigation water. These support systems
fostered the paradigm of green-revolution in the resource endowed
areas, but are bypassing the major poverty stricken rainfed areas.
Recognizing the need for restructuring the public policy/ support
systems and incentives available for rainfed farming, Indian Council
of Agriculture Research (ICAR), Watershed Support Services and
Activities Network (WASSAN) and Centre for Sustainable Agriculture
(CSA) are jointly organising a national workshop entitled
"New paradigm for
rainfed farming"
redesigning support systems and incentives."
On the basis of the scattered field experiences and research outputs
across the country, the workshop intends to deliberate and evolve a
framework for establishing appropriate support systems and incentives
for reinvigorating sustainable rainfed farming systems and livelihoods
in rainfed areas. It is also envisaged that the workshop would
bring-out a concrete agenda for action research, piloting new
initiatives, upscaling successful experiences, networking and policy
analysis/ influence.
Design of the workshop
A series of thematic presentations followed by discussions will set
the stage for group-work. The group work on the 2nd day brings forth
the essentials of a new framework. A session with funding
organisations is also scheduled to provide an interface and to promote
dialogue on the subject. The concluding session recaps the proceedings
and flags the follow-up actions.
The workshop deliberations will be published and the emerging agenda
will be followed up.
