Dryland farming

Dryland farming has evolved as a set of techniques and management practices to adapt to limited availability of water, as in the Western US and other regions affected by climate change for crops such as tomato and maize.

Survival as a dryland farmer requires careful husbandry of the moisture available for the crop and aggressive management of expenses to minimize losses in poor years.

Some of the theories of dryland farming developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries claimed to be scientific but were in reality pseudoscientific and did not stand up to empirical testing.

For example, it was alleged that tillage would seal in moisture, but such "dust mulching" ideas are based on what people imagine should happen, or have been told, rather than what testing actually confirms.

[3] The book Bad Land: An American Romance explores the effects that this had on people who were encouraged to homestead in an area with little rainfall; most smallholdings failed after working miserably to cling on.

Dryland farming was introduced to southern Russia and Ukraine by Ukrainian Mennonites under the influence of Johann Cornies, making the region the breadbasket of Europe.

"Terracing" is also practiced by farmers on a smaller scale by laying out the direction of furrows to slow water runoff downhill, usually by plowing along either contours or keylines.

Since healthy topsoil is critical to sustainable agriculture, in particular within arid areas, its preservation is generally considered[citation needed] the most important long-term goal of a dryland farming operation.

Erosion control techniques such as windbreaks, reduced tillage or no-till, spreading straw (or other mulch on particularly susceptible ground), and strip farming are used to minimize topsoil loss.