Improving a Transhumance Livestock System of India with Modern Technologies

Traditional livestock rearing systems in grasslands evolved in response to social, climatic, vegetative and technological conditions that existed scores, hundreds, or in some cases up to a thousand of years ago. Many of these systems involve vertical transhumance where flocks and herds are moved up elevation gradients for summer pasturage or horizontal transhumance in which livestock migrate across greater distances in response to regional rainfall patterns and the resulting availability of forage. In spite of the relatively low earnings of individual herders, these pastoral systems can contribute substantially to the national economies, while providing sustenance and food security to significant portions of the population. Additionally, traditional livestock rearing often contributes a rich social culture in regions where it is practiced and many societies closely identify with traditional livestock herding lifestyles. In many parts of the world herders still use traditional transhumance systems but they are coming under increased pressure from a number of forces such as social, economic (globalization) and political both within and external to these societies. Yet, many rural people living at or near the subsistence level still rely heavily on small flocks or herds that migrate for their livelihoods. These traditional pastoral or agro pastoral systems and the people that use them have an opportunity to employ modern technologies to change and improve with developing technologies. We studied the Indian Raika (Dewasi/Rebari) horizontal transhumance system of sheep and cattle from their home villages in western Rajasthan to the regions of Haryana and Delhi. During this project we attempted to understand the constraints to production, techniques that could increase animal health and family income of herders. One of the main goals of the project was to also identify programmatic opportunities whereby information at the national or international level could be used to improve sustainability and efficiency of movement from one grazing location to another

Mapping of Thar Desert Grasslands Using High Resolution Carto-Data (A Case Study of Jodhpur District)

The spatio-temporal condition and trend of grasslands in India at village-level is still not known completely. Historical and contemporary monitoring and assessment protocols are primarily based on the wisdom, knowledge and experience of village-level revenue officer (patwari) which is just significant from the statistical point of view. Contrastingly, such grassland areas are considered to be of high priority by government authorities for the long-term conservation of biodiversity. Protection, development and sustainable use of grasslands are very important for the rural economy and livestock. The major grasslands now survive west of isohyets 200 to 250 mm rainfall where livestock population is more than human beings. Animal husbandry plays such an important role in the lifestyle and economics of the inhabitants, scientific management of the grasslands, on which the animals depend for nourishment, is totally neglected. Pastoralism has coexisted within dry lands for decades. The constant pressure from an increasing human population and anthropogenic activities, particularly mining, has caused considerable damage to this unique desert grassland ecosystem. Several important grasslands have been converted to agricultural fields and the pressure to convert more grassland into such uses is mounting. Area under grasslands in the Jodhpur district has declined very sharply. It was 6.4% in 1976 (Sen, 1978) but has been reduced to \u3c 1.5% of the district area. Grasslands are one of the important classes of land use mapping exercise. The aim of the present project was to identify and map all grasslands and grazing areas in the Jodhpur district using spectral signatures of 2012-13 high resolution satellite data of Cartosat LISS-IV plus PAN merged and compare with 1976-77 and 2005-06 data. There is a need to sustain and conserve grasslands at grassroots level because these are the important life-supporting mechanism of the dry region. There is an immediate scope for the spatial and temporal scale dependence of assessment tools for grassland monitoring and undertaking research at village-to district-scales to incorporate geographic information systems and satellite remote sensing data, as well as new ecological concepts from landscape ecology and complex systems science

Pastoral Land Use and Grazing Measurement through Remotely Sensed Data

About 60 percent of the world\u27s pasture land (about 2.2 million sq km), just less than half the world\u27s usable surface is covered by grazinglands. These are distributed between arid, semi arid and sub humid, humid, temperate and tropical highlands zones. This supports about 360 million cattle (half of which are in the humid savannas), and over 600 million sheep and goats, mostly in the arid rangelands (grasslands) (IFAD, 2005). Grasslands around the world can have drastically different grazing management systems depending on the political, social, economic, and cultural settings. Livestock grazing is the predominant type of land use, providing the livelihood for more than a billion people. Still, livestock grazing is associated with large uncertainties, as the productivity of the pastures depends strongly on the low and highly variable precipitation (Behnke et al., 1993; Sullivan and Rhode, 2002; Westoby et al., 1989). In the semi-arid areas of western Rajasthan, the sparse yearly rainfall is concentrated in a distinct and short rainy season that is followed by the crop growing season and also the grassland vegetation. For a risk-averse herder, the challenge of grazing management is to optimally adapt to this highly variable and highly uncertain rainfall scenario while taking into account ecosystem dynamics. Extensive livestock rearing by Raika / Dewasi community has been a major occupation for centuries and traditional nomadic herding lifestyle in western arid Rajasthan. Its open grazing lands have so far, more or less, sustained this activity. But, with the teeming population of small-ruminants, management and control over village pasture use has slackened as a result incidences of encroachment have increased during recent past. We studied a pre- and post-monsoon pasture in the Nimbol village of Pali district using Clark’s Animal Tracking System (GPS) and remote sensing techniques. Our objectives were to: 1) understand the changes in pastoral land use management and document grazing land use patterns during the pre-grazing (pre-monsoon) and post-grazing (post-monsoon) periods at a local scale using remote sensing mapping methods, 2) evaluate changes in grazing land use from the pre-grazing and post-grazing period, and 3) assess the effects of land use changes on rangeland vegetation productivity using LISS-IV Mx satellite images

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About the book: Desert Regions are Familiar faces in many of History of the world. The Earliest civilizations and two of the world’s major Religions were born here. This publication “Environment, People and Development: Experiences from Desert Ecosystems” Highlights some of the Basic and technologically refined information from many parts of the Desert Ecosystems of the world.Not AvailableNot Availabl

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Not AvailableLivestock husbandry is one of the most noteworthy agricultural sectors that has been competing with overall economic expansion in the arid zones of the world. It plays a central role in the economy of Rajasthan because it fits in better with environmental, economic, social and demographic matrix of the region, especially in the western desert areas. The study attempts livestock husbandry and sustainability of large livestock rearers of western arid Rajasthan, India where the largest number of livestock of the country are reared particularly by the Rebari, Raika, Bishnoi, Jat, etc. The mainstay of the Raika or Rebari, Sindhi Muslims, and the Rajput population is rearing of small ruminants, cattle and camel, whereas Jats and Bishnoi usually rear cattle and camel. The data analysis of 1956-2012 indicates that the population of buffalo has increased by about 300% whereas the population of the camel has decreased by about 49.5% during the same period. Droughts of 1962, 1972, 1988 and 2007 negatively affected livestock population due to distress release and sale. During a normal rainfall year, females have contributed up to 71.2% in livestock husbandry for a barn and cleaning while men performed 67.8% marketing activities. Earlier, more than 78% agricultural operations were done by men using livestock. The animal husbandry contributes 85-92% income among the 21.52% households of small farmers. Annual income from livestock grew 8.9% during 2007-2012. However, rearing of goats and sheep was remarkable for high value-added role (19%) during 2007-12. The primary, as well as secondary sources, were used for analysis. Data were collected from field survey and different journals, reports, magazines, etc. and collated and analyzed with simple statistical techniques. The study presents recommendations for the improvement of social-economic sustainability of small farmers.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableRangelands play an important role in the livelihood of local communities and wildlife. In this paper, however, the three main roles of rangelands in low rainfall areas will be discussed in the following sections: (i) as a feed source for livestock production; (ii) a base of survival for local communities, their institutions and management practices they developed to overcome environmental variability and (iii) as a means of avoiding conflicts between herders and farmers. This paper is about local communities of people who live in and get their livelihoods from drylands. On a global basis they number hundreds of millions of people with thousands of millions of livestock. The focus is on the human dimension of rangelands i.e. indigenous communities, local institutions and resource management systems.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableOne binding feature of all arid regions in the world is aridity. The hot arid regions of India cover an area of 31.70 million ha of which 61% is located in state of Rajasthan, thus, forms principal hot arid region of the country. Agroforestry is way of life in arid western Rajasthan and traditional agroforestry systems of the region appears to be evolved on the basis of rainfall gradient. In past three decades many improved agroforestry systems have been developed by CAZRI, Jodhpur. These systems are economically beneficial and environmentally sound. Agroforestry sequesters carbon and produces a range of economic, environmental, and socio-economic benefits. Research on agroforestry as an adaptation to climate change and as a buffer against climate variability is in the process of evolving. There are many pathways through which agroforestry qualify as an adaptation to climate change, especially in arid regions of the country.Not Availabl