Agriculture Farming Practices for Sustainability and Doubling of Farmers’ Income in Dryland Agriculture

Abstract

Background: Arid and semi-arid regions are characterized by low and erratic rainfall, high evapotranspiration, fragile soils and recurrent droughts, which severely limit agricultural productivity and farmers’ income. Conventional farming practices often accelerate soil degradation, groundwater depletion, and climate vulnerability, resulting in low productivity and unstable livelihoods. Sustainable agriculture has emerged as a viable strategy to enhance productivity, conserve natural resources, improve climate resilience and increase farmers’ income through efficient resource utilization and diversified farming systems. Methods: The study was conducted in Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan characterized by low and erratic rainfall, high evapo-transpiration, degraded soils and frequent drought conditions during the year of 2025. The study evaluates major interventions, including water resource management, soil health restoration, crop diversification, integrated farming systems, agroforestry, renewable energy integration, climate-smart technologies, value addition, and institutional support. The available evidence was critically analysed to assess their impacts on crop productivity, resource-use efficiency, production costs, farm profitability and livelihood resilience. Result: It demonstrates that integrated adoption of sustainable agricultural practices significantly improves water- and nutrient-use efficiency, enhances soil health, increases crop productivity and reduces production costs. Practices such as micro-irrigation, rainwater harvesting, integrated nutrient management, conservation agriculture, crop diversification with drought-tolerant and high-value crops, integrated farming systems, agroforestry and value addition diversify income sources and strengthen resilience against climatic stresses. Collectively, these interventions have the potential to increase net farm income substantially, with several studies indicating that integrated implementation can achieve the objective of doubling farmers’ income within a few production cycles under favourable agroecological and institutional conditions.