Dryland Horticulture

Sustainable livelihood security of resource poor farmers is the top priority for the nation today. However, there is wide gap in productivity of various horticultural commodities among different eco-regions, where horticulture can play significant role particularly in arid and semi arid regions, it is far below than the potential productivity. Hence, sustained and steady growth in rural income is critical for positive impact on living standard of various stakeholders. Therefore, an appropriate strategy needs to be devised for such climatically vulnerable regions. The net income of farmers can surely be increased by efficient management of nutrient, water and agri-input, integrated horticulture based farming system, better market price realization, post harvest management and value addition, integration of secondary enterprizes and thereby improving productivity of arid and semi-arid horticultural crops. In this book, several such interventions are given inform of various chapters which will be of immense use improving the productivity and profitability of horticultural commodities.