Soil and Moisture Conservation in the Farmlands of Drought Prone Areas

Soil degradation and water table depletion have become serious threats to lives and livelihoods of humanity across all the continents. India is no exception; in fact experiencing a distress scenario, more due to heavy population pressure. Drought prone areas of the country are the worst affected resulting in the loss of agriculture-based livelihoods. To arrest such degradation and depletion, several programmes and policy initiatives of soil and water/moisture conservation were undertaken, mostly in public lands, by Central and State Governments and Non-Governmental Organisations in India. Subject experts have analysed the impact of such programmes and policy initiatives. However, important issues that needed closer analysis is rather about the efforts and the impact of soil and moisture conservation initiatives undertaken in private farmlands, as agriculture-based livelihoods thoroughly depend on private farmlands. The present work mainly aims in delineating the soil and moisture conservation practices adopted in the farmlands by the cultivators and the State, understanding the gaps in those practices, and suggesting appropriate soil and moisture conservation measures and policy initiatives. This book also documents several of the indigenous soil and moisture conservation measures that remained within the cultivator families. Due to such in-depth coverage, this book serves as a toolkit for those who entered into the science of soil and moisture conservation afresh.