Dryland food systems In Telangana
Through this event RICH aimed to promote an extensive community dialogue and empower collaborative change to transform the way the world produces, consumes and thinks about dryland food systems. Dry lands contribute 42% of the total food grain production of the country, out of the 97 million farm holdings in India, about 76% come under dry land farming. Despite significant improvements in the agriculture sector, as a country we struggle to be complacent with our dryland areas. In Telangana, about 63% of the crops grown is rain-fed, making dryland agriculture a prime focus for the Government. Dryland farmers suffer from low yields and crop losses due to poor resilience to climate change, which has drastically affected this food system in the region.
Contributions of each stakeholder for the development dryland food systems were identified during the deliberations in the following areas:
- Technology and knowledge exchange;
- Agri data exchange;
- Market linked production system;
- Adaptive technologies;
- Grassroots level knowledge;
- Policy advocacy; and
- Village seed banks and seed business incubation.