Sustainable dryland agriculture development.

Not AvailableThe Green Revolution in mid-1960s, though a boon to Indian agriculture, ushered in an era of disquieting disparity between productivity of irrigated and dryland agriculture. Even though the soil conservation projects served the major objective of prevention of siltation of reservoirs and flood control, production systems remained second in importance. Alarmed by the situation, the Fourth Plan (1969-74) specifically emphasized an urgent need for creating circumstances that would enable the hitherto neglected dryland farmers to participate purposefully in the agricultural development process. The socio-economic imbalance led to a serious verdict on setting priorities for dryland research leading to inducting an in-depth comprehensive network of multidisciplinary research and development program to stabilize the performance of the then introduced hybrids of nutritious (coarse) cereals in dryland region and to moderate the periodic drought related adverse impact on total agricultural productivity. The droughts of mid- 1960s catalyzed further the process of vigorous efforts in dryland research. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) formulated a widespread program on dryland research. The All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture (AICRPDA) was launched in 1970 by ICAR, in collaboration with the Government of Canada through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), with headquarters at Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. The preamble was Better Crop with Every Rain DropNot Availabl