Bed Raised Planting:

A raised bed is a mound of soil in which gardeners plant their crops and flowers. Many
raised beds are framed or enclosed. Frames help keep the soil in place during rainstorms and
watering.

In this technique the field is divided into narrow strips of raised beds separated by
furrows. The crops are planted on the bed surface and irrigation water is applied through the
furrows. The bed surface remains almost dry and the lateral water movement fulfills the crop
water requirement. The infiltration rate of the furrow bottom remains almost zero due to
compaction developed by tractor and machinery movement and irrigation water which
facilitates the lateral water movement of irrigation water into the bed area. Generally, a single
row is planted on the top of each bed for row crops like maize, soybean, cotton, sunflower
and dry bean, 1-2 rows per bed are planted for crops like chickpea and canola, but 2-4
defined rows, spaced by 15-30 cm depending on bed width are used for wheat. Generally the
farmers practicing the bed planting technique are currently removing or incorporating the
crop residues, destroy the beds by tilling the soil, and make the beds again before the next
crop.

Permanent Raised Bed:

In permanent raised bed technique the bed-furrow system once developed is not
destroyed seasons after seasons. The beds are only renovated and not misplaced. The
renovation operation consists of only using a bed renovator.
The bed renovator consists of two or three furrowers depending on the size of the raised beds
for cleaning the furrows and two horizontal blades that cuts the bed at the base of crop root
zone without disturbing the top of the bed. As experience has been gained with bed planting
and appropriate implements have been developed, farmers who grow crops on beds can now
simply reshape the beds before planting the next crop and retain all or part of the crop
residues on the surface, a practice referred to as “Permanent Raised Bed Planting”.

The permanent Raised Bed (PRB) farming system aims at creating and maintaining a seedbed
with near ideal physical and fertility conditions. The objectives are to develop a root zone for
crops that absorbs rain and irrigation water more quickly, makes this water easily available to
plants, and allows plants roots to freely explore the soil for water and nutrients. A raised bed
farming system achieves these soil properties by retaining roots material from previous crops
and practicing minimal soil disturbance with only a pre-seeding blade ploughing at 25 cm
depth (with zero soil inversion) and no tillage crops establishment i.e. seeding crops with
minimal cultivation only in the sown row.

By definition, a Permanent Raised Bed implies that the be stays in place for several seasons,
in comparison with being ploughed down and reconstructed every year as with more
intensive tillage systems. The permanent bed does not however imply that all bed
disturbances are totally excluded. Some pre-sowing light cultivation may be necessary to
renovate or reshape the beds. Bed disturbance is also necessary to destroy insects/pests e.g.
heliothis pupae. For cotton crop, the PRB usually involves ploughing in the beds once every
2-7 years, although experiments where beds have been retained for 18 year have been
reported. Cotton sown on permanent raised beds has better crop growth, higher lint yield and
superior fiber quality than the cotton sown after convention tillage.

Benefits of Bed Raised planting:

. The economic benefits shown by the PRB system are mainly due inter-alia following
benefits.

 Irrigation water use requirement have been reduced by 30-50% per crop.
 Grains yields of wheat increase by 10-20% and of maize by 30-40%.
 Farm profitability has increased by 50-100%.
 In bed raised gardens, it’s easy to control pests and weeds.