Impact of low cost interventions through frontline demonstrations on crop productivity and profitability of small and marginal farmers under dryland conditions

Introduction of drought tolerant varieties of maize and wheat resulted in significantly higher additional yield of 35.6 and 32.5 percent, respectively over the years. The rainwater management through ex situ and in situ techniques also proved to be crucial interventions for enhancing the crop productivity of small and marginal farmers in dryland regions. The lifesaving irrigation to wheat through harvested water gave 46.8% higher yield, while the in situ moisture conservation techniques resulted in 7.7% (summer ploughing), 10% (sowing across the slope) and 11.3% (ridge sowing) additional maize yield compared to farmers’ practice. The farm mechanization also improved the yield (20.3%), operational and economic efficiency of the farm operations and reduced the labour cost. Hence, from the present study, it was concluded that the adoption of these low cost interventions can improve the crop productivity with better economic returns and enable them to cope with weather aberrations in these dryland regions.