The 13 th International Conference on Dryland Development, with the theme “Converting Dryland Areas from Grey into Green”, is being organized by the International Dryland Development Commission (IDDC) and Arid Zone Research Association of India (AZRAI) and hosted by the ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI), from 11-14 February 2019, at Jodhpur, India.
This Conference is being organized on the occasion of Diamond Jubilee celebration of CAZRI, Jodhpur.
Drylands cover about 41% of earth’s land area and are home to ~38% of world population. A majority (>90%) of the people of this ecosystem live in developing countries. With fragile natural resource base, achieving food security in drylands has been a great challenge. With the threat of climate change looming large and additional threat of massive out-migration, the livelihoods of more than 2 billion people who live in these areas, will be further at risk.
The efforts of research and development community and policymakers dealing with dry areas and aiming at sustainable management of natural resources have to be boosted in order to optimize adaptive mechanism and risk aversion elements for the dryland communities.
Fast sharing of knowledge and capacity building of all the stakeholders in dryland will have to be an essential element of these efforts. Institutional reforms at the ecosystem level to bridge the divide in the governance of different natural resources including water coupled with the global commitment for greater coordination in legal, policy and management issues shall pave the path for sustainable livelihood security in drylands and in converting dryland areas from grey to green.
