Climate change is one of the biggest challenges the world must meet today and in the future. Prolonged droughts and desertification are among the issues faced by many countries, especially in Africa and Asia, where the rural poor and smallholders are most heavily affected.

Question raised in Lok Sabha on Development of Wasteland, 20/07/2017. As per information received from Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, details of estimated area under agricultural / cultivable land in the 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh comprising the Bundelkhand region as well as details of agricultural / cultivable land in the country during 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 are given in Annexure I.

The present study evaluated bamboo (Dendrocalamus strictus) based resource conservation in the Yamuna ravines at Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute, Research Centre, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. Ravine lands are highly degraded dry lands and 3.97 m ha area is affected by ravines in India. One ravine micro watershed of 2.8 ha area was planted with two rows of bamboo in staggered manner as vegetative barrier for the analysis of hydrological and economic aspect of bamboo plantation.

The world’s drylands are subject to desertification as a result of extended droughts, climate change, and human activities. Development in drylands depends on addressing degradation of the ecosystem, mainstreaming sustainable natural resources management, and building upon the existing adaptive capacities of communities and institutions. In this regard, recent scientific results aimed to promote sustainable development through action plans for combating desertification.

Agroforestry provides a living for at least 1.2 billion people—approximately a sixth of humanity —and nearly all of us use and consume some of the goods and services it provides.

Natural forages play an important role in the livestock based rural economy in developing countries like India. In this paper an attempt has been made to divide whole of India into four major natural silvipastoral cover that will help in forage resource planning and execution of various programmes for sustainable livestock production.

Fazilka: The sarpanch of Harnam Chand village is a man shattered. He and his six brothers own 50 acres of land in Shajrana village which has turned barren.

The field experiment was conducted during the year 2001 to 2006 on marginal degraded bouldery riverbed lands of Doon Valley in North-West India under rainfed conditions. The performance of grasses viz Panicum maximum (fodder grass) and Eulaliopsis binata (industrial grass for fiber and paper pulp) was evaluated alone and in association with Paulownia fortunei with regard to growth parameters and biomass yield.

The sixth anniversary of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) saw the government promising reforms in the scheme, which has been criticised for delays in wage payments and depleting farm labour.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the scheme could usher in a second green revolution through land development and irrigation facilities. He was, however, silent on demands to extend the scheme to mainstream agricultural activities.

The growth and plant water relations of Eucalyptus tereticornis Sm. and E. camaldulensis Dehnh. in relation to soil salinity were studied by transplanting one and half month old seedlings in the pots filled with eight levels of artificially created soil salinity levels.

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