Rainfed Area Development (RAD) will adopt an area based approach for development and conservation of natural resources along with farming systems. This component has been formulated in a ‘watershed plus framework’, i.e., to explore potential utilization of natural resources base/assets available/created through watershed development and soil conservation activities / interventions under MGNREGS, NWDPRA, RVP&FPR, RKVY, IWMP etc.

This component will introduce appropriate farming systems by integrating multiple components of agriculture such as crops, horticulture, livestock, fishery, forestry with agro based income generating activities and value addition. Besides, soil test/soil health card based nutrient management practices, farmland development, resource conservation and crop selection conducive to local agro climatic condition will also be promoted under this component. A cluster based approach of 100 hectare or more (contiguous or non contiguous in difficult terrain with close proximity in a village/adjoining villages) may be adopted to derive noticeable impact of convergence and encourage local participation and for future replication of the model in larger areas.

Supplementary support from this component will be admissible for gap-filling resource conservation activities under converging programmes. RAD clusters should have soil analysis/soil health card/soil survey maps to justify the interventions proposed and at least 25% of the farming system area will have to be covered under On Farm Water Management. Farming Systems recommended by ICAR’s Contingency Plans and successful findings of NICRA projects shall also be considered in development of integrated project plan. Besides, creation and development of common property resources/assets/utilities like grain bank, biomass shredders, fodder bank, group marketing etc. will be encouraged under this component.