Author: Waqar Ahmed Jehangir Publisher: IWMI ISBN: 9290906537 Category : Crop yields Languages : en Pages : 47
Book Description
This working paper presents the results of the Pakistan Component of the Rice-Wheat Consortium Project on ‘Sustaining the rice-wheat production systems of Asia’. Rice and wheat crops are main nsources of human food and substantially contribute to feeding livestock. The advent of the green revolution in the 1960s resulted in a tremendous increase in the production of these two cereal crops and the rice-wheat cropping system emerged as a very important source of food supply in South Asia. Recent symptoms of stagnant growth rates in productivity and the degradation of the resource base pose serious challenges to future food security and natural resources management in the region. The growing scarcity of water in the region
Author: David J. Spielman Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst ISBN: Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 648
Book Description
The world has made enormous progress in the past 50 years toward eliminating hunger and malnutrition. While, in 1960, roughly 30 percent of the world's population suffered from hunger and malnutrition, today less than 20 percent doessome five billion people now have enough food to live healthy, productive lives. Agricultural development has contributed significantly to these gains by increasing food supplies, reducing food prices, and creating new income and employment opportunities for some of the world's poorest people.This book examines where, why, and how past interventions in agricultural development have succeeded. It carefully reviews the policies, programs, and investments in agricultural development that have reduced hunger and poverty across Africa, Asia, and Latin America over the past half century. The 19 successes included here are described in in-depth case studies that synthesize the evidence on the intervention's impact on agricultural productivity and food security, evaluate the rigor with which the evidence was collected, and assess the tradeoffs inherent in each success. Together, these chapters provide evidence of "what works" in agricultural development.
Author: Palit Kataki Publisher: CRC Press ISBN: Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 164
Book Description
This book critically analyzes and discusses available options for all aspects of the rice-wheat cropping system of South Asia, addressing the question, "Are the sustainability and productivity of this system in a state of decline?" It compiles information gathered from research institutions, government organizations, and farmer surveys to analyze the condition of this regional system, suggest policy changes, and predict directions for future growth.
Author: Ilyas Masih Publisher: CRC Press ISBN: 0415689813 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 198
Book Description
This study provides a hydrology based assessment of (surface) water resources and its continuum of variability and change at different spatio-temporal scales in the semi‐arid Karkheh Basin, Iran, where water is scarce, competition among users is high and massive water resources development is under way. The study reveals that the ongoing allocation planning is not sustainable and essentially requires reformulation, with consideration of spatio‐temporal variability and observed trends in the streamflows regarding flood intensification and decline in low flows. The development of innovative methods for quantification of the hydrological fluxes (i.e., regionalization of model parameters based on similarity of the flow duration curve and the use of areal precipitation input in the hydrological modeling) helped better understanding and modeling the basin hydrology. The investigation of scenarios for upgrading rain-fed areas to irrigated agriculture, using SWAT, recommends the promotion of in-situ soil and water conservation techniques. Conversion of rain-fed areas to irrigation causes significant reduction in the downstream flows, and requires additional considerations such as less development in the upper catchments, practicing supplementary irrigation and developing water storage. The knowledge generated is instructive for hydrological assessment and its use in water resources planning and management in the river basin context.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: 9789463439152 Category : Languages : en Pages : 169
Book Description
Progressively erratic monsoon patterns threaten the ability of the rice-wheat system in South Asia’s Eastern Gangetic Plains to provide food and livelihoods for their food insecure and impoverished people. Ongoing research has identified early crop planting and improved irrigation use as key entry-points to overcome these challenges. However, there are critical knowledge gaps on the complex feedback mechanisms of these activities resulting in their low and incomplete adoption. These feedback mechanisms comprise of intertwined factors beyond classic water challenges in the rice-wheat system, including temperature rise, pest and disease pressure, value chains, and policy discrepancies between household and national scales. This thesis investigates and evaluates farmers’ planting and irrigation activities in the rice-wheat system through a socio-ecological systems framework to fill the knowledge gaps – thus identifying constraints and opportunities to overcome water-related challenges for food security and poverty reduction. Empirical data on farmers’ perspectives of planting and irrigation activities were collected and analysed – indicating that farmers and policymakers alike aim to synchronize crop planting with the monsoon onset, but that irrigation use at planting and during in-season dry spells is frequently delayed by uncertainty in weather signals, groundwater availability and availability of other inputs. Simulated crop yield patterns were then used to indicate the potential of synchronizing rice planting with the monsoon onset and fully utilizing irrigation to buffer against drought to contribute to food security. The results suggest that this strategy may indeed increase productivity and resilience in the Eastern Gangetic Plains – but not in the Western Gangetic Plains. However, an analysis of large-scale household survey data on crop production indicate that the poverty reduction potential of productivity increases is limited to the largest farmers, while most farmers need to rely on additional income streams for significantly boosting their incomes. This is followed by a concluding reflection on rice-wheat system contribution to sustainable development, building a framework for managing water and managing time in agroecological systems, and the merits, challenges, and current potential of interdisciplinary mixed methods approaches to tackle complex issues in sustainable agriculture. Lastly, this thesis discusses the implication for irrigation development and management, resilience to climate change and adaptation pathways, the role of the monsoons for sustainable agriculture, and future potential for better targeting of interventions and policies.
Author: Publisher: Academic Press ISBN: 012385041X Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 281
Book Description
Advances in Agronomy continues to be recognized as a leading reference and a first-rate source for the latest research in agronomy. As always, the subjects covered are varied and exemplary of the myriad of subject matter dealt with by this long-running serial. Maintains the highest impact factor among serial publications in agriculture Presents timely reviews on important agronomy issues Enjoys a long-standing reputation for excellence in the field
Author: Rattan Lal Publisher: CRC Press ISBN: 1135531528 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 450
Book Description
Addressing a topic of major importance to the maintenance of world food supplies, this reference identifies knowledge gaps, defines priorities, and formulates recommendations for the improvement of the rice-wheat farming system. The book reveals new systems of rice intensification and management and illustrates the application of no-till and conser
Author: Luis Catasús Guerra Publisher: IWMI ISBN: 9290903694 Category : Agricultural productivity Languages : en Pages : 33
Book Description
Over the past decade, we have witnessed a growing scarcity of and competition for water around the world. As the demand for water for domestic, municipal, industrial, and environmental purposes rises in the future, less water will be available for agriculture. But the potentials for new water resource development projects and expanding irrigated area are limited. We must therefore find ways to increase the productivity of water used for irrigation. This paper reviews the literature on irrigation efficiency and on the potential for increasing the productivity of water in rice-based systems. It stresses the continuing confusion over the concepts of irrigation efficiency and water productivity. It identifies the reasons for the wide gap between water requirement and actual water input (both irrigation diversions and rainfall) in irrigated rice production systems and discusses potential opportunities for increasing water productivity both on-farm and at the system level. Based on the reported low farm and system level irrigation efficiencies, the potentials for water savings in rice production appear to be very large. But we do not know the degree to which various farm and system interventions will lead to sustainable water savings in the water basin until we can quantify the downstream impact of the interventions. Studies on the economic benefits and costs, and environmental aspects of alternative interventions are also lacking. This paper emphasizes the need to measure the productivity of water at farm, system, and basin levels, and to understand how the productivity at one level relates to the productivity at another. Without water balance studies to measure productivity at these different scales, it is not possible to identify the potential economic benefits of alternative interventions and the most appropriate strategies for increasing irrigation water p productivity in rice-based systems.
Author: Waqar Ahmed Jehangir
Author: David J. Spielman
Author: Palit Kataki
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Author: Ilyas Masih
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Author: Rattan Lal
Author: Luis Catasús Guerra