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Abstract:States of ecological maturity and temporal trends of drylands in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia north of 28˝N are reported for [1998][1999][2000][2001][2002][2003][2004][2005][2006][2007][2008]. The input data were Normalized Difference Vegetation Index databases and corresponding climate fields, at a spatial resolution of 1 km and a temporal resolution of one month. States convey opposing dynamics of human exploitation and ecological succession. They were identified synchronically for the full period by comparing each location to all other locations in the study area under equivalent aridity. Rain Use Efficiency (RUE) at two temporal scales was used to estimate proxies for biomass and turnover rate. Biomass trends were determined for every location by stepwise regression using time and aridity as predictors. This enabled human-induced degradation to be separated from simple responses to interannual climate variation. Some relevant findings include large areas of degraded land, albeit improving over time or fluctuating with climate, but rarely degrading further; smaller, but significant areas of mature and reference vegetation in most climate zones; very low overall active degradation rates throughout the area during the decade observed; biomass accumulation over time exceeding depletion in most zones; and negative feedback between land states and trends suggesting overall landscape persistence. Semiarid zones were found to be the most vulnerable. Those results can be disaggregated by country or province. The combination with existing land cover maps and national forest inventories leads to the information required by the two progress indicators associated with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification strategic objective to improve the conditions of ecosystems and with the Sustainable Development Goal Target 15.3 to achieve land degradation neutrality. Beyond that, the results are also useful as a basis for land management and restoration.

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Background: Livestock plays a significant role in Indian economy. Cattle population in India is higher (192.6 million), whereas the productivity is not. Quality fodder has to be supplied rather than costly concentrate feeds to reduce cost of production. Water being the important input of agriculture, its per capita availability (1829 m3) is reducing gradually. To improve the use efficiency drip irrigation is preferable rather than flood irrigation. Fertigation improves nutrient delivery and uptake in plants. Bajra Napier hybrid is a multicut perennial fodder grass grown in arid and semiarid region with high biomass yield. Methods: Experiment was conducted at college farm of Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai to study the growth and yield response of Bajra Napier under different irrigation regimes and fertigation levels. The treatments were laid out in split plot design, with three irrigation regimes in main plot and six fertigation treatments in sub plot. Result: The combination of 100% ETc with 100% RDF of NPK applied as water soluble fertilizer recorded higher morpho-physiological characters such as plant height, number of tillers and leaves per clump, leaf area index and green fodder yield, during the first two harvests. This might be due to more water availability at 100% ETc which lead to more water and nutrient uptake from the soil, In addition to that water soluble fertilizer at 100% RDF has more nutrient ratio and solubility. Positive correlation was observed between the growth parameters and green fodder yield, As the source and sink are the same in fodder crops.