Natural resource management and their conservation: Critical issues for nutitional security by hill agriculture

Issue I: Rainfed agriculture : Less than 10 per cent of the cultivated area in intermediate zone of J&K is irrigated (Anonymous, 2011). Hence, the abundance and distribution of rainfall is of utmost importance for agriculture. The distribution of mean annual rainfall in Rajouri is presented in Fig.1, which indicates that annually there are two crests in the mean distribution curve coinciding with the Kharif (larger crest) and Rabi (smaller crest) seasons, respectively. Thus, the rainfall distribution pattern is very suitable for growing both the Rabi and Kharif crops. The mean annual rainfall for the period 2004-2014 in Rajouri was 902 mm of which average rainfall during the Kharif months (April to October) was 624 mm and during Rabi months (November to March) was 278 mm. However, as evident from Fig. 1, the actual distribution of rainfall during various years is erratic with non-uniform period of drought and rains in various months. At the same time, we see that there is no season with a complete drought as rains do occur at some point of time during the crop