This article is part of Food Tank’s primer series, “Food Tank Explains.” Each installment unpacks the ideas, innovations, and challenges shaping today’s food and agriculture systems, offering clear insights into complex topics. To explore more articles in the series, click here.
Dryland farming is a practice used to cultivate crops in regions where water supply is limited, seasonal, or unpredictable. Dryland systems use no irrigation and depend entirely on rain. They work by capturing and storing as much rainfall as possible and ensuring that crop water demand does not exceed what’s available.
According to the Dry Farming Institute, success depends less on total rainfall and more on how much is captured in the soil. To prevent loss to runoff, dryland farmers apply techniques including contour farming, where crops are planted across slopes in terraces, and land shaping, which involves changing the topography of the land.
Captured rainfall can evaporate from the soil surface before it reaches crop roots, particularly in hot, dry, and windy regions. To keep water in the root zone, dryland systems prioritize practices that reduce evaporation and increase soil water-holding capacity.
Often, part of dryland farms will lie fallow in alternate seasons or years, to accumulate water for subsequent crop cycles. Increasing soil organic matter can also improve water retention. Practices such as crop rotation, cover cropping, and mulching build and maintain organic matter while reducing erosion and evaporation.
To ensure crop water demand does not exceed supply, dryland farmers align planting and harvesting dates with local rainfall patterns, rather than a fixed calendar date. And they select crops based on seasonal conditions and characteristics such as drought tolerance, adaptability, and the timing of a crop’s water needs.
Common dryland crops include pigeonpea, which both tolerates drought and improves soil fertility, and tepary beans, which are protein-rich and can withstand varying levels of water stress.
Sorghum—which the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) calls an underutilized crop that has significant potential for nutrition, climate resilience, and economic stability—can conserve water during dry periods by temporarily suspending growth.
“Wild desert plants have a remarkable number of adaptations to cope with heat, drought, unpredictable rainfall, and poor soils,” Erin Riordan of the University of Arizona tells Food Tank.
Drylands are a vital but overlooked resource with untapped economic potential and environmental value, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
They make up 46 percent of the planet’s land area and support 44 percent of global food systems, including half of the world’s livestock. They are home to more than 2 billion people and support the livelihood of 1 billion people in 100 countries.
Drylands are “strategic landscapes rich with the potential to drive resilience, economic vitality, and sustainable prosperity for millions,” Éliane Ubalijoro, CEO of the Landscape Alliance and Director General of World Agroforestry (ICRAF), tells Food Tank.
But these regions, which already face some of the world’s harshest conditions, are under threat. Increasing water scarcity, land-use change, and extreme weather events are transforming drylands into barren landscapes, according to Ismahane Elouafi, Executive Managing Director of CGIAR. Research published in Nature Ecology & Evolution estimates that up to 20 percent of drylands are already degraded or at risk.
And, according to the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification and research published in Communications Earth & Environment, these pressures will intensify in the coming decades.
Heat, drought, and unpredictable rainfall are all stressful growing conditions likely to become more common, Riordan tells Food Tank. The U.N. Environment Programme estimates that land degradation in drylands could cut global food production by 12 percent over the next 25 years.
Impacts fall disproportionately on the 2 billion people who live in drylands, which include some of the world’s poorest and most climate-vulnerable communities, according to CGIAR.
ML Jat, the Director of Resilient Farm and Food Systems at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), tells Food Tank these communities are often “the first to face hunger, thirst, and the devastating effects” of declining soil and environmental conditions.
Despite these pressures, researchers and organizations highlight the potential of restoration. Investments in drylands can return as much as US$30 for every dollar spent, Ubalijoro tells Food Tank, describing drylands as “places of deep opportunity.”
But drylands need greater recognition in policy. FAO Assistant Director-General Abdulhakim Elwaer calls for integrating dryland agriculture into national development plans, climate action strategies, and food security policies. Researchers in Nature Ecology & Evolution call for stronger safeguards, finding that only 12 percent of drylands are protected.
Other recommendations focus on how solutions are developed and scaled. CGIAR’s Global Strategy for Resilient Drylands emphasizes partnerships among researchers, governments, businesses, and local communities to adapt agricultural innovations to dryland conditions. FAO recommends combining traditional knowledge with modern technologies.
Ubalijoro argues that these efforts can help redefine what drylands represent. “This is an opportunity for all of us,” she says, “to make these thrivelands not only a source of prosperity but also a source of peace.”
Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.
Photo courtesy of Brett Meliti
