Track 3-1-1: Multi‐Stakeholder Platforms for Addressing Grassland Issues and Sustainable Use of Forage and Grassland Resources
Description
The East India Plateau (EIP) experiences deep poverty despite high rainfall (> 1200 mm). Livelihoods, once derived from Sal (Shorea robusta) forest, now depend on agriculture. Subsistence farmers practice monoculture rice-fallow on small, fragmented landholdings (total < 1 ha). Rice in the undulating landscape was traditionally grown in lowland drainage lines (Fig. 1) but population pressure has forced it onto adjacent terraced slopes (medium-uplands) that now comprise > 80% of the rice area (> 50% of land area). Rice is protected from grazing, but the watershed is otherwise grazed as common land with no pasture management. Grazed uplands are often degraded and unproductive, receiving no inputs. Livestock are limited to large animals providing draft power (males) and manure (fuel, compost), and goats for emergency finance.
Rainfall is not the primary constraint to production from micro-watershed ecosystems of the EIP-improved rainfed cropping would deliver immediate substantial benefits, without watershed development (Cornish et al., 2015a); although low soil fertility requires attention (Agarwal et al., 2010). The next step in development requires a strategy for poor, risk-averse smallholders to improve grazing land. This paper develops a proposal for evaluation, using a soil fertility survey of seven watersheds combined with botanical observations and published work.
Citation
Kumar, Shivendra; Kumar, Ashok; and Cornish, Peter Stuart, "A Proposal for Improving Pastures in Subsistence Farming Systems on the East India Plateau" (2020). IGC Proceedings (1993-2023). 5.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/igc/23/3-1-1/5
Included in
A Proposal for Improving Pastures in Subsistence Farming Systems on the East India Plateau
The East India Plateau (EIP) experiences deep poverty despite high rainfall (> 1200 mm). Livelihoods, once derived from Sal (Shorea robusta) forest, now depend on agriculture. Subsistence farmers practice monoculture rice-fallow on small, fragmented landholdings (total < 1 ha). Rice in the undulating landscape was traditionally grown in lowland drainage lines (Fig. 1) but population pressure has forced it onto adjacent terraced slopes (medium-uplands) that now comprise > 80% of the rice area (> 50% of land area). Rice is protected from grazing, but the watershed is otherwise grazed as common land with no pasture management. Grazed uplands are often degraded and unproductive, receiving no inputs. Livestock are limited to large animals providing draft power (males) and manure (fuel, compost), and goats for emergency finance.
Rainfall is not the primary constraint to production from micro-watershed ecosystems of the EIP-improved rainfed cropping would deliver immediate substantial benefits, without watershed development (Cornish et al., 2015a); although low soil fertility requires attention (Agarwal et al., 2010). The next step in development requires a strategy for poor, risk-averse smallholders to improve grazing land. This paper develops a proposal for evaluation, using a soil fertility survey of seven watersheds combined with botanical observations and published work.
