Focus on . . . Dryland agriculture

The natural resources of water, soil and vegetation essential for present and future agricultural productivity in the dryland areas of the tropics and non-tropics are facing unprecedented threats of degradation. Climatic variation is partly responsible for declining resource quantity and quality but demographic pressure on the land poses the greatest risk to future agricultural production in these regions. With the need to produce more food from a limited resource base, producers are following practices that maximise short-term returns at the expense of long-term sustainability and, with the scarcity of water in dryland regions, particularly where precipitation is low and uncertain, poverty is pronounced. In this edition of New Agriculturist we focus on some of the crops that are sustaining people in dryland areas, methods of maximising harvesting of rainfall and the search for genetic resources that could hold the key to developing dryland crops in the future.

Barley breeding: believing in what is best

Over 10,000 years ago, barley was domesticated in the fertile crescent of the Near East. Today the area is still home to a tremendous variety of crop plant types and their wild relatives. Farmers, with assistance from scientists, are continuing to tap into this diversity...

More from millet

Sandstorms and soil temperatures that can reach 55C would be enough to discourage most people from attempting to grow their own food. But, if you add pests and diseases and a high risk of drought, can there be any hope of achieving a reasonable yield? In the Dosso region of Niger, villagers have been assessing a new variety of millet...

Grasspea - a tough choice

During the drought in Georgia two years ago, only one crop was left standing: grasspea, a legume species capable of withstanding a myriad of assaults. Originating in south west Asia or southern Europe, and cultivated as a food and forage crop for over 8000 years, grasspea is now a lifeline for millions of poor farmers in Africa, Asia and the Middle East...

Sticking to the hillsides

Steep-sided, bare hills eroded almost to the bare rock and, in the dry season, not even enough grass to feed the livestock. It is a familiar sight in many parts of the world but, in Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces in southern China, a way has been found to reclaim the slopes for productive agriculture. Leading the recovery is pigeonpea...

Learning from the rain catchers

In many dry areas water tables are falling and productive agriculture is increasingly difficult. But how to restore and sustain dryland farming? Could a large scale application of indigenous water harvesting systems offer a solution..?

Following in Vavilov's footsteps

The countries of Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, are rich in biodiversity. But changes in agricultural practices, due to a combination of increasing population and land degradation, are threatening the existence of a treasure trove of genetic material that could be vital for sustaining dryland agriculture in the future...

Molecular mapping for millet

Whether in Africa or in Asia, pearl millet varieties affected by Downy Mildew can be wiped out and farmers' losses can be devastating. Even with resistant varieties, the fungus begins to adapt to overcome the resistance. However, molecular mapping has proved a vital and promising step in the on-going battle to improve pearl millet...

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