BAIF Centre for Development in Arid/Desert Areas is set up to achieve sustainable livelihood development for communities in arid region of Western India through suitable technology interventions ,to build context specific model to be able to address unique issues related to Natural Resource Management and Livelihood Development after considering Arid Specificity and to introduce various drudgery reduction measures, including S& T tools and thereby reduce the hardship of arid women in daily activities

 The work proposed is participatory analysis of contextual needs, followed by promotion of technologies and processes at the household and community levels for: sustainably increasing returns from agriculture and animal husbandry, increasing availability of water, increasing biomass, and reducing drudgery of women. The farming system is seen as a whole, with agriculture, horticulture, livestock, fodder and water-resource components integrated at the household level, enabling farmers to reap multiple benefits.

·         Incubating need based technology options under four thrust areas: (i) agri-horti-forestry development  (ii) livestock development (iii) water resource  development (iv) drudgery reduction measures

·         Introducing and strengthening proven technology interventions for adaptation in selected villages.

·         Consolidation of experiences and learning to streamline and package the development model.

·         Promoting participatory revival of useful traditions and conservation practices.

·         Creating a knowledge base and relevant documentation.

·         Increasing mobilization of government and other resources to support scaling and replication of context-specific interventions.

Location:

Under this initiative, the Center for Development in Arid/Desert Areas has been set up. Field work has been done in Rapar cluster in Kachchh district of Gujarat and Barmer cluster in Rajasthan, with research done at Nanodara, Gujarat.