A simple introduction to this answer can revolve around a general statement about agriculture and dryland farming.

Indian agriculture is regulated by an impossible trinity that asks it to achieve three goals simultaneously – global competitiveness, social inclusiveness and environmental sustainability.

Almost 65 per cent of India’s arable land area of around 140 million hectares is classified as rainfed. Farming activities in such areas are typically marked by low productivity, high risk, and a lack of adoption of current technology/agronomic methods.

Drylands are areas with low soil moisture and high evapotranspiration, resulting in water deficit prevailing throughout the year.

Dryland farming helps increase the amount of organic matter in the soil, improving its fertility and structure. It also helps to address the problem of hunger and malnutrition prevailing in society.

Body

You may incorporate some of the following points in the body of your answer:

Problems Associated with Dryland Agriculture

Soil and Moisture

• In semiarid regions, the alfisols and vertisols predominate, whereas in river basins inceptisols and entisols are seen and in desert regions.
• Crops grown in alfisols are subjected to severe drought stress, whereas those produced in vertisols have less severity to drought, due to their better water-holding capacity.
• Soil erosion by water is found to be the primary cause in mountainous areas and in undulating terrains in Central India.
• Salinization has turned out to be a significant cause of the degradation of soils.
• Watershed-based approaches are found to be more productive regarding water and soil conservation.

Environmental changes in water logging and salinity

• Soil degradation has a close link with water logging and salinity problems. Irrigation salinity has a major impact on dryland crops.
• The major causes of water logging and salinity are overirrigation, poor drainage, improper irrigation for damaged soils etc.
• These environmental changes result in the reduction of yields and abandonment of lands which has facilities for irrigation.

Dietary habits and nutritional characteristics of crops grown

• The choices of crops that are to be grown in drylands are very limited such as oilseed pulses and coarse grains like bajra are grown.
• The dryland crops are not much remunerative leading to an economic imbalance. Crop substitution is another alternative.

Conclusion

Your conclusion should be short.

From a larger perspective, dryland farming helps conserve water resources, minimises soil erosion and promotes sustainable agriculture.

Several technologies for dryland farming can help to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change by reducing greenhouse emissions and promoting soil carbon sequestration.

Other Points to Consider

Contribution of Drylands to Indian Agriculture

Importance of dry land farming