RA 00015.pdf - OAR@ICRISAT

further investigated, Management systems resulting
in greater runoff without significant erosion
will be explored on soils with limited profile
storage capacity. Research will be oriented towards
operational problems related to harvesting,
drying, and threshing of rainy season crops.
Research on alternative resource-management
and cropping systems on an operational scale to
increase and stabilize production in rainfed agriculture
has been initiated at two Regional
Centers by the All-India Coordinated Research
Project for Dryland Agriculture. Possibilities for
such cooperative research are being considered
at other Centers. Data on improved resource
management collected at several locations characterized
by different agroclimatic conditions
will provide a better base for extrapolation of
research results and for early implementation of
improved farming systems. Possibilities are
being explored to test improved farming systems
under real-world conditions in pilot projects to
determine their social implications.
the SAT (climate, soil, people, livestock, capital,
etc.), dictates the need for associated research
efforts at such locations. Preliminary investigations
are under way to identify bench-mark
locations in Africa.
During the past year, discussions with Indian
research programs 15 have resulted in two
cooperative research proposals which have been
initiated at several locations across the Indian
SAT.
Hydrologic studies to improve land and water
utilization in small agricultural watersheds
The objective of this project is to derive regionspecific
design criteria for improved resource
management which will more effectively conserve
and utilize the rainfall and the soil and
which, when integrated with new crop production
systems, increase productivity and assure
dependable harvests. The project has been
started at Bangalore and Hyderabad.
C o o p e r a t i v e R e s e a r c h
ICRISAT is one of the research centers where
new concepts, approaches, and methodologies to
arrive at improved farming systems will be
generated. However, before application in the
diverse regions of the SAT, these principles have
to be integrated into viable packages or systems
and adapted info applicable site-specific technology
through cooperative research.
Simulation techniques are used to quantify
and predict the hydrologic behavior of agroclimatic
environments under alternative resourcemanagement
technologies. Also, basic information
on crops and cropping systems, developed
in various national programs, is used to
match improved systems to the resources of a
region. These studies will greatly reduce the
number of research alternatives to evolve viable
farming systems. For effective simulation studies,
a limited number of bench-mark locations
must be identified. The diversity encountered in
Research on resource development, conservation,
and utilization in rainfed areas
The objectives of this project are to develop a
research program for testing the bed-and-furrow
system of cultivation and its modifications under
several agroclimatic conditions and also to quantify
the production effects of presently accepted
soil and water conservation practices. The proposed
research locations are Akola, Bangalore,
Bellary, Hyderabad, ICRISAT Center, Indore,
Ranchi, and Sholapur.
15 The All-India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland
Agriculture and the Central Soil and Water Conservation
Research and Training Institute.
196