**3.3 Drought**

The frequency and occurrence of droughts in arid region are much higher than other regions in drought affected states in India. Out of 13 states repeatedly declared as drought-prone, Rajasthan is the most critical state in the country with highest probabilities of drought occurrence and rainfall deficiencies. Several records shows that about 48 drought years have been reported of varied intensity since 1901 in last 102 years and only 9 years out of them were totally free from drought [19]. The impact of recurrent droughts is the less hazardous than the consecutive droughts of 3–4 years (1984–1987). Consecutive droughts affect the sewan fresh fodder production very badly leading to mortality of animals. The studies conducted at CAZRI, Jodhpur revealed that the sewan could survive under extreme arid and severe drought conditions below 250 mm annual rainfall [20]. It has also been observed that the probability of experiencing severe droughts affecting the grass production in a rainfall zone below 200 mm is about 50 per cent. Sewan being a promising desert grass provides sustained forage production for a longer period even under the harsh climate or lean period of arid regions of western Rajasthan.

## **3.4 Landforms**

Sewan has been found to be more suitable for wind strip cropping as an associate component of silvi-pasture system in the areas of sand dunes and undulations of sandy undulating aggraded alluvial, interdunal plains and sandy undulating buried piedmonts. Fourteen major landforms have been identified in Rajasthan as a whole. Among them, mainly the deposited sandy undulating plains are found to be more appropriate for sewan grass coverage and growth.

### **3.5 Existing situation**

A large area as wastelands is available in arid region, which can be utilized for development of grasslands and establishment of pastures. The estimates showed that in India available wastelands vary from 56.60 million ha (17.21 per cent of geographical area of the country i.e. 328.72 Mha). The technologies for improvement and management of pastures, grass-legume mixed pastures and silvipastoral system to increase the carrying capacity of grazing lands is available [21].
