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This paper makes a case for, instead of disseminating isolated technologies, adopting the farming systems approach to controlling desertification and sustaining dryland farming in the desert ecosystem of India. Unless assured of substantial increases in productivity, farmers will not adopt new technology. But synergistic integration of dryland farming with animal husbandry and amelioration of degraded lands in a farming systems perspective can only help raise the productivity in resource-poor regions to levels that may interest farmers. This paper discusses initial results of efforts to develop prototype farming systems for desert agriculture with built-in synergy. (C)1998 Academic Press Limited.