The arid region is characterized by fragile ecosystem. Due to frequent droughts arable farming is a gamble. Tree is central to production and function in this region. It is also central to arable farming and animal husbandry. Over fifty years of research at CAZRI have shown that growing tree on agricultural and non agricultural fields conserves soil and rain water, enrich soils and produce biomass which can be used as food, fodder and fuel.

Livestock sector is one of the key components of arid agriculture in India. It is an important source of livelihood in Rajasthan for rural masses and generates regular income. Arid Rajasthan which is known as traditional pastoralist region has 29.1 million livestock. During the last two decades the cattle and camel population in the region has sharply declined mainly due to reduction of common grazing lands, fodder deficit, reciuring droughts and government’s neglect. On the other hand the demand for milk, meat and other dairy products has enormously increased. In order to assess the present situation and foresee the avenues for development, district wise livestock data from 1956 to 2007 have been analyzed and various aspects viz. density, grazing pressure, human livestock ratio, fodder situation, impact of drought, veterinary facilities and population trend from 1972 to 2007 are presented. Long term climatic conditions and biophysical resources, key challenges, limitations and potentials of this sector have been brought out. Strategies are suggested for all roimd development of livestock sector.

In this paper, an attempt has been made to document the economic efficiency of mustard production in arid zone of Rajasthan. The forty farmers were selected each from simple random sampling method among the farmers using new technology (mustard variety Jai Kisan) as well as traditional technology for mustard crop. The results indicated that modern technology generated higher technical efficiency. The higher technical efficiency could be achieved due to efficient use of inputs. If the farmers used inputs efficiently, 22 per cent more yield could be obtained. Similarly, there is ample scope to increase the wheat and mustard production by nearly 20 to 25 per cent. This would lead to decrease in unit cost of production and increase the farm income.

he experimental results indicated that the increasing levels of iron significantly increased the grain and straw yield of barley, whereas yields decreased significantly with increasing levels of SAR of irrigation water. The increasing levels of iron also increased significantly to the Ca/Mg ratio in grain and straw which reflects the alkalinity tolerance of barley under higher levels of SAR of irrigation water. The increasing levels of SAR of irrigation water increased the pH and SAR while decreased the ECe, DTPA-Fe of soil. The optimum dose of iron under different levels of SAR water viz., 10, 20, 30, and 40* were 9. W, 8.38, 7.66 and 4.73 kg/ha respectively

Potassium supply characteristics of soils have been investigated from various angles of which Q/I concept is considered meaningful, Number of workers have applied this approach for Rajasthan soils. However, Practically no work has been done on Q/I approach on soil series occurring in Rajasthan. Various Q/I parameters of eight soil series of arid Rajasthan have been studied and their relationships among themselves and soil attributes are reported in this paper.

An experiment was conducted from 1994 to 1997 on community pasture land which was completely degraded and there was only Aristida species in small patches at Kotri watershed. For improving the productivity and sustainable grass production on degraded land, two methods of seeding (pelleted and non platted) with nine treatments of legumes and non legumes grasses and their mixtures in split plot design with three replications were taken. The grass productivity had significantly increased under pelleted as compared to seeding method. Cenchrus ciliaris and Cenchrus setigerus alone and mixture with Stylo in 75:25 ratio also gave significantly higher grass yield as compared to other grass mixtures but at par with C. setigerus + S. hamata (50:50).

A. Ientiformis (exotic) and A. stocksii, halophytic salt bushes established and produced nitrogen rich fodder on arid salty waterlogged soil in Jodhpur. Mounding practices significantly enhanced the survival, growth and biomass production for both the species. Double ridge mound was best A. Stocksii and circular dish mound for A. Ientiformis. After 72 months, A. stocksii maintained the percent survival as 75% on DRM, 41.7% on CDM and 12.5% on control while it was 53.8(DRM), 58.0 (CDM) and 8.3 % on control, respectively, for A. Ientiformis. Overall A. Ientiformis recorded significantly more mean green and dry (2462.2 & 819.8 g) biomass compared to 1548.3 & 631.3 g for A. stocksii. Root development was alongside the ridges in DRM, while in CDM root development was in all direction along the circular mound with occasional root going out of the soil structure. Overall CDM was the best structure and it produced 562.5 & 256.0 g shrub-1 fresh and dry rootmass which was 2.8 & 15.0 and 2.1 & 12.2 times more than DRM and control respectively.

In rural areas of Barmer district of Rajasthan state most of the farmers rely on traditional health care to keep their animals healthy. Though, modern technologies in the field of animal husbandary have made immense progress but with time, it has not been transferred to the rural areas. This region is rich in various indigenous technologies which people use in their daily life. Hence there is a need to analyze these practices in the light of modern research with a positive approach and reality.