Severe soil organic carbon (SOC) depletion is a major constraint in rainfed agroecosystems in India because it directly influences soil quality, crop productivity and sustainability. The magnitude of soil organic, inorganic and total carbon stocks in the semi-arid bioclimate is estimated at 2.9, 1.9 and 4.8 Pg respectively. Sorghum, finger millet, pearl millet, maize, rice, groundnut, soybean, ...

in eastern austria, alfalfa is usually grown as a rainfed crop in crop rotations in organic farming systems, where yearto- year rainfall fluctuations cause different levels of drought stress. to identify the suitability of different alfalfa genotypes and drought tolerance indices, 18 contrasting alfalfa genotypes were evaluated under irrigated and rainfed conditions at the research station of t...

Drought is one of the major constraints limiting agricultural production worldwide and is expected to increase in the future. Limited water availability causes significant effects to plant growth and physiology. Plants have evolved different traits to mitigate the stress imposed by drought. The presence of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) could play an important role in improving pla...

Dry land farming in India accounts for 63% of the cultivated land of 144 million hectares. The crop production on these lands is dependent entirely on the natural precipitation, which is highly erratic in terms of spatial and temporal distribution during the crop-growing season. To address these problems, Government of India has accorded high priority to watershed approach for development of ra...

The Middle East encompasses five ecological domains: (1) the humid highlands and their intermontane valleys, where rainfed farming was begun and permanent settlements were first established; (2) the semi-arid steppes, where the lesser amount and instability of rainfall made rainfed farming marginal but still provided vegetative resources that could be utilized by semi-nomadic pastoralists; (3) ...