Rainfed Area Development (RAD)

What is Rainfed Area Development?

Rainfed Area Development (RAD) is a component of the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), one of the missions under India's National Action Plan on Climate Change, run by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. Its purpose is to make farming on rainfed land; land that depends on the monsoon rather than assured irrigation, more productive and more resilient.

About half of India's net sown area is rainfed, and farmers on this land are the most exposed to erratic rainfall, drought and land degradation. RAD responds by promoting an Integrated Farming System (IFS) on clusters of such land, so that a farming household no longer depends on a single rain-fed crop for its income.

RAD is not a scheme that pays a benefit to an individual who fills in a form. It is delivered through State Agriculture Departments, which choose the clusters, plan the interventions and enrol the farmers in the selected area. Funding is shared between the central and state governments under the NMSA guidelines.

The Integrated Farming System approach

The heart of RAD is the Integrated Farming System. Instead of growing one crop and hoping for good rain, a farmer combines several enterprises on the same holding so that they support one another. According to descriptions of the programme, RAD's integrated systems can bring together:

• Crops and livestock: field crops alongside cattle, dairy, poultry or goat rearing, so animal produce provides income and manure feeds the soil.
• Horticulture, fruit and vegetable cultivation suited to dryland conditions.
• Fishery: where water harvesting structures allow it.
• Agroforestry — trees grown with crops for fodder, fuel, fruit and soil protection.
• Value addition; simple processing so farmers earn more from what they produce.

The logic is risk-spreading: if the monsoon fails and the main crop suffers, income from livestock, horticulture or trees cushions the household. This makes RAD as much a climate-resilience measure as an income measure.

Who is eligible for Rainfed Area Development?

RAD is intended for:

• Farmers cultivating rainfed and degraded land, especially small and marginal farmers, in areas selected by the state as RAD clusters.
• Groups of farmers in a contiguous cluster, because the Integrated Farming System and soil-and-water conservation work best when applied across a whole area rather than a single isolated plot.

Who cannot apply as an individual:

• Individuals cannot claim a personal RAD benefit through a national online form. RAD is an area-based, cluster-based programme; a farmer benefits only by being part of a cluster that a State Agriculture Department has taken up.
• Farmers on fully irrigated land are not the target group, since RAD is designed specifically for rainfed and degraded areas.

If you farm rainfed land and want to be part of RAD, the route is to approach your district or block agriculture office and ask whether your area is, or can be, taken up as an RAD cluster.

How does RAD support farmers?

RAD support is delivered largely as inputs, assets and technical assistance for the Integrated Farming System, for example planting material, livestock or poultry units, water-harvesting and soil-conservation works, and training: rather than as a fixed cash transfer to each farmer. The per-cluster and per-hectare assistance is defined in the NMSA operational guidelines and is released to the state, which spends it on the approved cluster activities.

Because these financial norms are set out in the NMSA guidelines and are revised from time to time, farmers should confirm the current assistance pattern with their State Agriculture Department rather than rely on older figures.

How to apply for or access RAD

RAD works through the state, so the process is institutional rather than a personal application:

1. Identify whether your land is rainfed or degraded and therefore the kind of area RAD targets.
2. Approach your district or block agriculture office (State Agriculture Department) and ask whether your village or block is part of an existing RAD cluster or can be proposed as one.
3. Join the cluster / farmer group organised by the department, since RAD plans at the level of a contiguous area, not a single farmer.
4. Participate in the Integrated Farming System plan drawn up for the cluster; receiving the inputs, assets and training provided under it.

For the scheme framework and current guidelines, the NMSA portal at nmsa.dac.gov.in is the reference; for enrolment, your State Agriculture Department is the authority.

How RAD is funded and governed

According to the NMSA framework, RAD is funded jointly by the central and state governments, with the central share being more generous for North Eastern and Himalayan states than for other states, the standard pattern for NMSA components. The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare sets the guidelines and releases the central share; State Agriculture Departments plan and implement the clusters. Over time RAD has been positioned within the wider Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) umbrella for agricultural development, but its identity as the rainfed, Integrated Farming System component has remained consistent.

For a rainfed farmer, the practical takeaway is simple: RAD is real support for diversifying away from a single monsoon-dependent crop, but it reaches you through your state's agriculture department and its cluster, not through an individual online claim.