Rainfed Agriculture and Watershed Management

AGR 322 (1 + 1)
Lecture 1. Introduction to rainfed agriculture

Indian agriculture is being described even today as ‘A Gambling with Monsoon’. Until
about 30 years ago, India’s agricultural destiny was linked closely to the annual precipitation
pattern. After independence, with emphasis for development of irrigation, some degree of
stability came to food security. However, even today ⅔ of the cultivated area are still rainfed.

Growing of crops entirely rain water is known as dryland agriculture. Depending on the
amount of rainfall received, dryland agriculture can be grouped into three categories;

a. Dry farming: is cultivation of crops in regions with annual rainfall less than 750 mm. Crop
failure is most common due to prolonged dry spells during the crop period. These are arid
regions with a growing season (period of adequate soil moisture) less than 75 days. Moisture
conservation practices are most important in these regions.

b. Dryland farming: is cultivation of crops in regions with annual rainfall more than 750 mm.
In spite of prolonged dry spells crop failure is relatively less frequent. These are semiarid tracts
with a growing period between 75 and 120 days. Moisture conservation practices are necessary
for crop production. However, adequate drainage is required especially for Vertisols / black soils.

c. Rainfed farming: is crop production in regions with annual rainfall more than 1150 mm.
Crops are not subjected to soil moisture stress during the crop period. Emphasis is often on
disposal of excess water. These are humid regions with growing period more than 120 days.

Other definitions
1. Arid means “to be dry”. Latin word “arere” means deficiency of rainfall, hence it implies that
there is scarcity of moisture.
John Widtsoe is the first person to use the word as ‘dry farming’ that word is first originated in
Utah State of USA in 1863. ‘The profitable production of useful crops without irrigation on
lands which receives annually a rainfall of 20 inches or less, however this amount of rainfall may
be extended to 30 inches with unfavourable distribution’.
2. According to Encyclopedia Britanica: Dry land farming consists of making best use of
limited water supply by storing in soil as much of the rainfall as is possible and by growing crops
by methods that make best use of this moisture.
3. According to the 4th Five Year Plan.
Those areas which receive an average annual rainfall from 375 to 1125 mm with very
little irrigation facilities, when the area receives < 375 mm rainfall is considered as Arid, where
as the areas receiving > 1125 mm is considered as irrigated areas. According to this definition in
our country 91 districts receive rainfall ranging from 750 to 1125 mm. 25 districts among them
receive 350 to 750 mm (high dry intensity).
4. According to Steiner et al. (1988)
They considered the concept of Aridity index which is accepted by UN Conference on
desertification. This concept was based on the balance between the precipitation and
evapotranspiration.
Arid P/ETP between 0.03 and 0.2.
Semi arid Ratio of P/ETP – 0.2 to 0.5
5. According to FAO (1978)
Which involves the concept of potential growing period, growing period is the period in
which the precipitation is exceeding half of the ET.
Potential growing period is the number of days in a year, where, the rainfall is exceeding
half the ET + 100 mm. The period over which the 100 mm of stored soil moisture can be used
from soil profile.
The area with growing period between 75 and 119 days are classified as Semi-arid and
area with growing period 1 to 74 days is considered as Arid.
Classes:
1) Normal – precipitation exceeds ½ of ET
2) Intermediate – precipitation equals ET
3) Dry – precipitation does not exceed ½ of ET
7. ICAR (1970) by utilizing the simple classification of Thornthwait and Mather
a) Soil Moisture Deficit Index = [( P – PE)/PE] X 100
Semi-arid = > - 33.3 to – 66.7
 Differences between dry, dryland and rainfed farming.

Parameter Dry Farming Dry land farming Rainfed farming

1. Rainfall < 750 mm 750 – 1150 mm > 1150 mm

2. Region Arid Semi – Arid Semi arid – Humid

3. Risk Frequent Less frequent Safe

4.Conservation practices Conservation of Conservation of soil & Water Conservation &

soil & Water + Drainage in Black soils disposal of Excess H2O

5. Cropping Mono cropping Mono Cropping & Inter Double cropping

Cropping

6.Growing period < 75 Days 75 – 120 Days > 120 Days

7. Erosion Wind Wind & Water Water

8. Management Extensive Moderate Intensive

9. Yield Less stable Moderately stable Sustainable

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific distinguished
dry land agriculture mainly into two categories: dryland and rainfed farming. The distinguishing
features of these two types of farming are given below.

Constituent Dryland farming Rainfed farming

Rainfall (mm) <800 >800

Moisture availability to the Shortage Enough
crop
Growing season (days) <200 >200
Growing regions Arid and semiarid as well as uplands of Humid and sub-
sub-humid and humid region humid region
Cropping system Single crop or intercropping Intercropping or
double cropping
Constraints Wind and water erosion Water erosion
 Lecture2. Scope & Importance of Rainfed Agriculture in India

“Intensive irrigated farming is an imperative for survival; but improved dryland agriculture is
essential for equity” – Dr. Gautam, Former DG, ICAR

1. Out of 143.8 m.ha cultivated land in India, 67% (96.3 m.ha) depends on rainfall.

328 m.ha (Total Geographical Area) 143.8 m.ha (Arable / Cultivable)

96.3 m.ha – 67% Rainfed / Dry 47.5 m.ha – 33% Irrigated

33.2 m.ha – Dry Farming 63.1 m.ha Rainfed Farming

2. Rainfed area contributes significantly both in area and production

Area Contribution Production Contribution

Sorghum, GN, Pulses > 90% Total Food grains 45%

Maize, Chick Pea 82 – 85% Pulses 90%
Rape seed / Mustard 65.8% Oilseeds 75%
Cotton 78% Cotton 70%
Rice 61.7%
Barley 44 %
Wheat 35%

3. About 70% of rural population depends on success or failure of crops and in turn rainfall for
their lively hood.

4. Although, India is blessed with average annual rainfall of about 1200 mm, slightly above the
global mean of 990 mm, the fate of dryland crops oscillates with the quantity, onset, and
progress, spatial and temporal distribution of monsoon rains. Of the mean annual rainfall, 30
per cent of the country gets less than 750 mm and 40 per cent between 750 and 1250 mm.
Only 20 per cent area is blessed with rainfall between 1250 and 2000 mm, leaving about 10
per cent area with annual rainfall over 2000 mm.

5. Much of the increase in food production in the recent past is estimated to be mainly due to
irrigated areas. According to experts, even when the ultimate irrigation potential is reached,
 55 per cent of the net sown area will be still, rainfed. Therefore, it is inevitable that in future
the additional food has to come mainly from the drylands.

6. At present, 3 ha of dryland crop produce cereal grain equivalent to that produced in one ha
irrigated crop. Hence, there is a great scope to increase productivity under rainfed situation.

Rainfed Irrigated

Average productivity (t ha-1) 0.4 – 0.7 1.5 – 2.0

7. The per capita land availability, which was 0.28 ha in 1990, has declined to 0.19 ha with
limited scope for increasing the area under plough, only option left is to increase the
productivity with the modern technology and inputs in drylands.

8. The productivity has already showed a plateau in irrigated agriculture due to problems related
to nutrient exhaustion, salinity build up and raising water table. Hence, the challenges are to
make grey areas (drylands) as green.

9. Dryland offers good scope for development of Agro-forestry, Social forestry, Horti- Sylvi-
pasture and other similar systems which will not only supply food, fuel and fodder, but forms
a suitable vegetative cover for ecological maintenance.

10. Dry / Rainfed land offers vast scope for increasing cropping intensity and employment
generation. The cropping intensity in rainfed areas is 110 – 115% against 150 – 300% in
irrigated areas.
Lecture 3.
History of Rainfed / Dryland Agriculture in the World, India and Karnataka
I. Outside India
American scientists are the pioneers in studying dry farming. When Europeans started
settling in America in 1847, they started farming. One such state was Utah. In 1863, some
emigrants ploughed virgin lands in Malad Creek of Utah state and applied sea water for
irrigation. No doubt the crop failed, but it gave way for cultivation of crops without irrigation.
Some emigrants grew wheat on rainfall alone as a matter of necessity. To their surprise,
however, they got a fair crop of wheat even without irrigation. This was the first experiment on
dry farming in Utah. These practices were further extended to California and Washington states.
In these states rainfall varied from 10 to 12 inches.
In the year, 1879, one Mr. Campbell, a settler from Nebraska came to South Dakota
State. He harvested a bumper crop of 12,000 bushels of wheat from 300 acres in 1882. But, on
the same field during 1883 he lost the crop due to drought. This made him to study the
conditions under which wheat crop was produced. He studied the writings of Jethro Tull (1773).
Jethro Tull suggested that – i. amount of seed to be sown should be in proportion to the moisture
in the soils, ii. seed should be sown by drill deep in soil in moist zone, and iii. frequent
ploughing, continuous cultivation and rotations of crops to be practiced. Campbell considered
conservation of moisture near root zone is necessary. Therefore, he developed soil packers in
1885. This implement packs soil near 40 – 45 cm below and checks movement of water. He
started a journal called ’Soil Culture and Farm Journal’. In 1904, he published ‘Soil Culture
Manual’.
MacDonald(1911) published “Principles and Practices of Dry Farming”. In this book he
suggested deep ploughing. The advantages listed were
i. It increases the water holding capacity of soils
ii. Admits sunlight and air
iii. Extends the root feeding areas
iv. Prevents light soils from being blown away
v. Prevents surface washing after heavy rains
vi. Enables plants to withstand successfully long periods of drought.
 He reported that moisture saving – summer fallow was adopted by agriculturists of Utah
state.
John A Widtsoe (1911) defined the term ‘dry farming’. In 1911, he wrote a book on dry
farming. He was of the opinion that conservation of soil moisture depends on vigorous,
continuous stirring of top soil. Plough deep in the fall, cultivate it in early spring and after every
rain, and follow alternate year rotation of wheat, barley, rye and alfalfa. He pointed out that for
dry land purposes there should be plants that will produce the maximum quantity of dry matter
with the minimum quantity of water and, further their periods of growth must be the shortest
possible. Thus, cultivation, cultivation was the war cry for dry land farming.
Dry farming received great impetus with holding of First Dry Farming Congress at
Colorado, USA, in 1901.
In1912, International Dry Farming Congress was held at Canada.
In later period, USA gave importance to contour ploughing, strip cropping, mulching, weed
control, use of drought resistant crops and varieties, use of nutrients and farmyard manure for
soil fertility maintenance and adoption of improved cropping pattern.
During this period, Russia recommended ploughing and fallowing, strip cropping i.e. strips
of vegetation were established to control soil erosion. Preventing the wind erosion by trenches
also was in practice. They gave priority to planting of forest trees and manuring of soils.
In Australia, controlled grazing to reduce soil erosion was given emphasis. Afforestation was
given importance and some land was reserved for raising forest vegetation.
ICRISAT
CGIAR, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, helped in the
establishment of ICRISAT, International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics, at
Patanacheru in Hyderabad, India in 1972 to meet the needs of semi arid tropics. Mandate crops
included sorghum, pearl millet, groundnut, chickpea, and pigeonpea. Recently finger millet was
also included. Besides crops, research on farming systems is also carried out here.
ICARDA
Another international centre ICARDA, International, Centre for Agricultural Research in the
Dry Areas, was established in 1977. It is located at Aleppo, Syria.
 It addresses problems of Central West Asia and North Africa (CWANA), as well as
developing countries with subtropical and temperate dry regions. It focuses its efforts on areas
having a dry summer and where precipitation in winter ranges from 200 to 600 mm.
It has been given the world responsibility for the improvement of barley, lentil, and faba bean
and a regional responsibility for the improvement of wheat, and pasture and forage crops. It also
works on farming system research.
II. History of Rainfed / Dry land Agriculture in India
Country faced recurrent drought since 1850 onwards which led to the appointment of
Famine Commission in 1880 by the then British Empire. The most important recommendation of
this commission was that protective irrigation projects should be established for the benefit of
dry tracks. This decision led to bringing of sizeable area under such projects. The Commission
also recommended the revival of the Department of Agriculture in all provinces.
The Royal Commission on Agriculture in India (1928) also clearly observed Department
of Agriculture should mainly apply themselves to the research in the crops which offer the best
prospects of success. Thus, the crops grown in the rain fed areas continued to be neglected.
I. Research in the Pre-Independence Period
It was not until the year 1923 that the first systematic scientific approach to tackle the
problem of dry farming was made.Mr. V.A. Tamhane, Soil Physicist who initiated the work on
small plot at Manjari Farm, near Puna of Bombay state in 1923.
Imperial (now Indian) Council of Agricultural Research started 5 dry farming centres in
the country. The Solapur and Bijapur centres started functioning in 1933, Hagari and Raichur in
1934 and Rhotak in 1935. The project continued until 1943-44 and the results from 10 years of
concerted research efforts recommended dry farming practices for the respective regions (known
after respective provinces e.g. Bombay dry farming practices, Madras dry farming practices etc.).
The important components of these practices (recommendations of Bombay Dry Farming
Centre) were
i. Soil and moisture conservation practices – like contour bunding with bund farmer and
deep ploughing once in three years for better intake and storage of rain water.
ii. Addition of farm yard manure once in three years for improving soil fertility.
iii. Crop management practices like
a. Improved varieties
 b. Wider rows and lower seed rates
c. Intercultural operation for weed control and evaporation control
d. Mixed cropping, and
e. Crop rotation
The returns with the improved production technology were low (15-20 %) because of the
poor yielding (0.4-0.5 t ha-1) biological material available at that time. The low pay off did not
enthuse farmers resulting in low adoption of this technology.
II. Research during Post-Independence Period
In the post –independence period, another effort towards increasing productivity of dry
lands was made with the establishment of Soil Conservation Research Centres (CSWCRTI) in
1954 at 8 locations viz., Dehra Dun, Agra, Chandigarh, Kota, Vasad, Bellary, Ibrahimpatnam
(Hyderabad), and Ootakmand. These provided further information on land use classes, rainfall
pattern, runoff collection and fertilizer use. Still the productivity remained low due to short
period available for rainfall dependent crop growth.
In 1959, CAZRI, Jhansi was set up to study problems of dry areas.
In 1961 a National Seminar on Dry Farming was held at Bombay.
IGFRI, Jhansi, was started in1962.
In 1962-63 another soil conservation programme “Soil conservation in River Valley
Projects” was launched for preventing siltation of reservoirs and flood control.
AICRPDA
The All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture (AICRPDA) is a
multidisciplinary project encompassing the disciplines of Agronomy, Soil chemistry, Plant
breeding, and Agril. Engineering and was launched with 23 centres (Hissar, Jodhpur, Bellary,
Rajkot, Anantpur, Solapur, Akola, Kovilpatti, Hyderabad, Varanasi, Bangalore, Indore,
Bhuvaneswar, Ranchi, Dehra Dun, Udaipur, Jhansi, Anand, Agra, Bijapur, Rewa, Ludhiana,
Samba) in different parts of the country vide ICAR letter no. 1-2/69-SC(1)/DL dtd June 18,
1970. The project head quarter was located at Hyderabad. Fifteen of the centres were main
centres and the remaining eight were sub-centres.
Mandate of AICRPDA
The primary mandate was to improve and stabilize the crop production capability of dryland
farmers.
The objectives were
1. To evolve simple technology to at least double the crop productivity on farmers’
fields.
2. To stabilize crop production over years by providing alternate crop production
technologies to match the weather aberrations, and
3. To optimize use of natural resources viz. land and water.
AICRPAM
In 1983, All India coordinated Research Project on Agrometeorology (AICRPAM) was
started. This gave further strength to the dryland research by understanding and defining crop
growth related weather factors.
CRIDA
ICAR elevated the status of the Dry land Project Directorate of AICRPDA to that of a
full fledged institute named as Central Research Institute for Dry land Agriculture to embark
upon lead research (1985).
The mandate of CRIDA is set out below.
i. To conduct basic and applied research for improving productivity of natural
resources.
ii. To develop techniques and systems for long term conservation and efficient
utilization of land and environmental resources.
iii. To understand crop growth and yield process, more especially under moisture stress
situations.
iv. To evolve appropriate extension, training and communication mythologies for
accelerating transfer of dryland technology, and
v. To carry out economic evaluation of technologies, study constraints, and develop
suitable resource base models for adaptation.
NWDPRA
During the year 1986, the GOI launched the National Watershed Development
Programme for Rainfed Agriculture (NWDPRA) in 99 districts and 15.
The basic objectives of integrated watershed development are
i. To conserve the basic resources of soil, rain water and vegetation
ii. To achieve higher biomass production both in arable and non-arable areas
 iii. To impart stability to crop yields through proper rain water management,
restructuring of cropping patterns and ensuring proper land use
iv. To enhance the income of individuals, through adoption of alternate enterprises.
Keeping in view the diversity in rainfed farming and complexity of problem it faced, it
came to be recognized that further fillip to rainfed agriculture research could be provided by
multidisciplinary work across diversely mandated Institutes. In pursuance of this perception
ICAR funded the establishment of several institutes with specific programmes.
National Research Centre for Agroforestry at Jhansi,.1988.
National Research Centre for Arid Hortculture at Bikaner, 1990.
Central Agril. Research Institute for Island Agriculture at Port Blair, 1978
History of dry land Farming in Karnataka
1925 - Soil conservation activities were initiated
1930 – Special bunding Officers were appointed
‘Tagai’ loans were given to cultivators
1933-4 – Dry land centres at Bijapur, Raichur, and Hagari
1941-2 – Projects of soil conservation were started at Bijapur, 87,000 ac were covered
1954 – CSWCRTI, Bellary
1984-5 – Govt. of Karnataka started dry land development boards at each districts
1987 – Bijapur centre received National productivity award for watershed development
programme (Yarnal project)
 Lecture 4: Problems and prospects of rainfed agriculture in India

Most of the cropping in the arid and semi arid regions continues to be under rainfed
conditions. A majority of the farmers are small farmers with meager resources. The poor
resource base permits only low input subsistence farming with low and unstable crop yields. The
productivity of the irrigated agriculture is either on decline or stagnating. Creation of irrigated
area is very costly and the gestation on period is lengthy. At the same time the quantity of water
available for irrigation is on the decrease as more and more water is diverted to non agricultural
usages and it is not possible to bring all area under irrigation. This implies that certain areas of
our agriculture will remain rain fed. Therefore, it would be desirable to use the available agro‐
techniques for higher productivity and also to develop new and better technologies so that higher
productivity could be obtained.

Problems of rain fed agriculture are many. Rain fed area is not only thirsty but hungry
too. Two most important limitations of the rain fed area are, therefore, soil moisture and plant
nutrients deficiencies. Rainfed farmers are resource poor too. They have very little to invest in
farming. Rain fed area is infested with natural calamities like drought and flood even in the same
cropping season. Crops grown are energy hungry but soils are energy starved. This is why
productivity is low. Rainfed farming is risky and hard work is very much needed. As there is
very little scope of opportunities for employment in the rainfed area, migration from the village
of the rainfed areas to the cities is very common. This results in serious labour availability
problems which restricts the agriculture operation. Available labors are unproductive and costly
too. That is why use of farm machinery is on increase. Many institutes are working in rainfed
areas. The Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA), Pulse Research
Institutes, Oilseeds Reaches Institute, Co-ordinated Research Projects related to pulse crop,
oilseeds crops are some of the them. The technologies developed by so many institutes are not
the same for the same area which may also create confusion for the farmers.

The low productivity of agriculture in dry farming regions is due to the cumulative effect of
many constraints for crop production. The constraints can be broadly grouped in to.

1) Inadequate and Uneven Distribution of Rainfall:

In general, the rainfall is low and highly variable which results in uncertain crop yields.
Besides its uncertainty, the distribution of rainfall during the crop period is uneven,
receiving high amount of rain, when it is not needed and lack of it when crop needs it.
(a) Cultivation of low water required crops
(b) Short duration crops grown
(c) Providing life saving irrigation
2) Long Gap in Rainfall :
(a) Increase in seed rate to obtain more population
(b) Spraying of urea solution
(c) Providing life saving irrigation at critical growth stages
(d) Weeding and intercultural operations
3) Early Onset of Monsoon :
(a) Cultivate Pearlmillet, Sesamum etc.
4) Late Onset of Monsoon :
Due to late onset of monsoon, the sowing of crops are delayed resulting in poor yields.
(a) Alternate crop &varieties: Castor (Aruna), green gram, cowpea, sunflower
(b) Dry sowing
(c) Pre sowing
(d) Seed soaking/treatment
(e) Transplanting of one month old Bajra seedlings.
(f) Complete weed control
(g) Grow legumes/oilseed crops in place of cereals
(h) most suitable crop for this condition is Sunflower.
5) Early Cessation of Rains:
 Sometimes the rain may cease very early in the season exposing the crop to drought
during flowering and maturity stages which reduces the crop yields considerably
(a) Select short duration varieties
(b) Using mulching/mulches
(c) Life saving irrigation applied
(d) Decrease in plant population
6) Prolonged Dry Spells :
Long breaks in the rainy season is an important feature of Indian monsoon.
These intervening dry spells when prolonged during crop period reduces crop growth and
yield and when unduly prolonged crops fail.
(a) If dry spell in 10 days of sowing, re-sowing
(b) If mild moisture stress at 30-35 days after sowing, thinning of alternate rows of
Sorghum and Pearl millet
(c) If severe moisture stress at 30-35 days after sowing, cutting of sorghum and Pearl
millet and rationing.
(d) If moisture stress at blooming stage, cutting of sorghum and Pearl millet and rationing
(e) Breaking of monsoon for short while, shallow inter cultivation for eradicating
weeds/soil mulch
(f) Wider spacing for moisture conservation
(g) Spray of 2 per cent urea after drought period is useful for indeterminate crops like
castor, pigeonpea and groundnut.
(h) Soil mulching to reduce evaporation losses
(i) In situ water harvesting
(j) Life saving irrigation
(k) Weed control to save water, nutrients etc.
7) Low moisture retention capacity :
The crops raised on red soils, and coarse textured soils suffer due to lack of moisture
whenever prolonged dry spells occur due to their low moisture holding capacity. Loss of
rain water occurs as runoff due to undulating and sloppy soils.
8) Low fertility of soils:
Soil fertility has to be increased, but there is limited scope for extensive use of chemical
fertilizers due to lack of adequate soil moisture.
Prospects

The prospects are many. Proper use of technologies developed by the different ICAR institutes,
State Agriculture and Central Universities, NGOs, Input industries could be gainfully used to
harvest the potential of that exists in the rainfed areas.

Soil and water conservation technologies

Soil and water conservations are very important issues in rainfed agriculture. Hence, soil and
water conservation measures are to be adopted religiously. Many soil and water conservation
measures are available which are as bellow.

Method 1: Compartment Bunding (Rabi Sorghum, Sunflower, safflower, cotton, chickpea)

The impact of the method is more during suboptimum rainfall years. It also significantly controls
run off. The method is adopted in more than 800ha in Northern Karnataka.

Method 2: Conservation Furrows (Ragi, Groundnut, Soybean etc)

Opening of the conversation furrow enhances in situ moisture conservation, thus the crop can
overcome the effect of dry spell resulting in increased rain water efficiency, better yield and
additional net return.

Method 3: Broad bed and furrows (Ragi, Groundnut, Soybean etc)

The ridges and furrow method helps drawing out excess water from the black soil. Further the
rain water conserved in the furrow in beer yield of the crop long dry spell.

Method 4: Ridges and furrows (Rabi Sorghum, Pigeon Pea+ Rice)

This method conserved 30‐45 percent more soil moisture than the method followed by farmers of
the locality concerned This practice is adopted in the 60 percent of the sorghum area in Sholapur
district.
Method 5: Ridges planting (Bajra)

It provides enough aeration and porosity to the soil for enhanced root growth, safe disposal of
excess water and reduction of soil loss apart from moisture conservation during low rain fall
period.

Method 6: Set furrows (Bajra, sunflower)

Conserved more moisture and make it available for longer period to the crop. This helps to
overcome the effect of drought.
 Lecture 5. Characteristics of soils in dry farming areas

The dry lands in India have got variety of soils belongings into different groups. The soils of dry
land are grouped into 5 major categories

1. Red soils
2. Black soils
3. Alluvial soils
4. Sierogemic soils
5. Sub-mountain soils

1. Red soils: Red soils are highly weathered soils. Generally clay content of these soils is very
low. These are sandy loam with a clay content not exceeding 10-20 %. These are got low water
holding and nutrient holding capacity. Soil pH neutral in reaction. Water intake rate is high
because of high sand content. These are usually shallow and deep soils are also being present in
high rainfall areas. In these soils, clay content increases in depth. Sub soils could be relatively
more compact and mixed with Morrison. So every year deep ploughing is must. In sloppy
situations, red soils occurs in the higher or upper elevation due to light texture they tend to farm
crust or surface sealing formation with drops of rainfall. Soil rainfall may be about of 20% of
rainfall.

Red Soils: Salient Characteristics

 The texture, generally vary from loam to clay loam in texture.

 They are, in general, acidic to neutral in reaction, depending upon the content of iron
oxides.
 The silica: sesquioxide ratio (in clays) varies from 2.5 to 3.0
 The cation exchange capacity and base saturation of these soils are relatively lower
than that in the Black or Alluvial Soils.
 The base saturation is always< 35%.
 The soils are generally deficient in nitrogen, phosphorus and micro-nutrients.
 They are also poor in organic matter and lime contents.
  These soils show the dominant presence of illite and chlorite (2 : 1 type), with
common presence of kaolinite (1: 1 type) clay minerals.

Soil fertility: Red soils are usually poor in nitrogen and many times deficient in phosphorous
also. On very light soils K is also deficient. Under continuous cultivation system calcium being
deficient particularly in crops like groundnut repleshments necessary. Under high RF situation S
may become inadequate.

Soil water relationship: Depending upon, clay content of soil moisture holding capacity varies.
15 cm / m depth of soils is the common water retention capacity. This may increase to 20 cm if
the clay content of soils increased from 20 – 30 %. Usually in kharif cropping is practiced and in
only in high RF areas that extend over 6 moths two crops can be successfully grown.

2. Black soils: Black soils are more productive than red soils. These soils very in their depth.
Deep medium and shallow types of soils with clay content varies from 30 – 70 %. They are rich
in bases like Ca, Mg and K. They hold more moisture but water intake hold is very low. These
are alkaline in nature pH is > 7.5. Due to heavy in nature not easy to till. The soils start cracking
by late December to early January resulting in loss of soil moisture. There is tendency for sheet
erosion and runoff ranges from 10 – 20 % depending upon RF and slope.

Black (Cotton) Soils:Salient Characteristics

 These are high clay content ranging from 30 to 80 per cent.

 The clay type is typically montmorillonitic of swells and shrinks nature.
 They have high exchange capacity (30-60 c mol(p +)kg-1 soil) and are rich in base
saturation.
 These have high water and nutrient holding capacity.
 Being calcareous they have pH ranging from 7.8 to 8.7, which may go up to 9.5 under
sodic conditions.
 These have high bulk density (1.5 to 1.8 mg m-3) soil.
 These are very dark in colour which may be due to clay-humus complexes
 The soils are extremely hard, when dry, and highly sticky and plastic, when wet
 The silica: sesquioxide ratio of the clay varies from 3.0 to 3.5
Soil fertility: These soils have high results of potassium secondary nutrients like Ca, S and
micronutrients. But for higher production supplementation of higher nitrogenous fertilizers are
necessary. Some of the micronutrients Zn and Fe particularly when cropping intensity is more.
Lime induced Fe chlorosis is very common in black soils because of high Ca content. Hence
deficiency of iron is very common.

Saline conditions: Under high saline conditions, B my reach to toxic level. Often, sub soil
salinity due to impeded drainage is also seen. Many black soils are calcareous in nature. In these
soils, lime occurs as lime cankers of different sizes as depth increases the gypsum can also be
accumulated in lower horizons.

Heavy texture and structure makes difficult for cultivation. Soil aeration might be a problem
under water logged condition. Under such situation provision of surface drainage is difficult and
even hard pan formation is due to continuous cultivation which restricts the feeding zone. This
makes higher doses of N application.

Soil water relation: The depth of the soil which determines the water availability more the
depth more is the availability of water. The meter of depth of soil may hold upto 30 cm of water.
In deep black soils high RF with double cropping is possible. In shallow soils, with less RF
kharif crop is normally practiced. If soil is deep and RF I less cropping during rabi season is
commonly practiced on stored soil moisture.

3.Alluvial soils: These are predominant types. Generally these are loamy sands or sandy loams.
Here depth is not a constraints, 10-20 % clay, because of lower clay content, WHC and NHC is
low. These are neutral to alkaline in reaction. Since clay content is less, water intake rate is high.
These are tends to farm crust with beating rains and this may leads to great runoff. Productivity
of these soils is hgh because each plans get larger feeding values, as depth is not a constraints.

Alluvial Soils: Salient Characteristics

 The Alluvial soils, are variable in colour and texture

 They are coarser near the source and become finer in proximity to the sea (delta
area).
 They are deep to very deep in nature.
  They are inherently rich in phosphorus and potassium, but are deficient in nitrogen
and organic matter contents.

Soil fertility: These are poor in N status. P deficient might be seen in very high yield level.
Adequate in K and other nutrients. Wherever slope occurs, in the lower elevation of slop, he soil
may be saline. It is also be heaver from point of working.

Soil water relation: As the clay content is more, the soils tend to hold more moisture. They hold
about 15 cm depth of soils in case of loamy sandy soils and 20 cm / m depth of soils in sandy
loams. As the depth is not limiting, in low RF regions, cropping can be taken either in kharif or
rabi. And in high RF region, double cropping can be attempted.
4. Sierozemic soils: These soils are found in Assam, Gujarat and Kutch areas of Sowrastra.
These are arid soils occur in arid zones. Soils contain more soils and extremely light in nature.
Loamy sands or sandy loam soils contains more of CaCo 3. Calcium carbonate concentration
occurs at various depths influencing the various soils depths. Feeding root zone is limited.
Surface cracking is serious problem and in these soils surface soil erosion due to wind is very
common.
Soil fertility: Light soils contain less water and nutrients and universally poor in nitrogen. Some
times P is also limiting in crop production. Sub soil salinity is very common due to extreme
aridity.
Soil water relation: Like in alluvial soils, the texture of soils determines availability of water. In
these soils kharif and rabi crops can be grown in deep soils. In loamy sands and also in shallow
soils, crops have taken up only in kharif season.
5. Sub-mountain soils: These types of soils are fund in foot hills of mountain especially in
Dehradun. Here the land is undulating and soils are silty loam and sometimes sandy loams are
also same. Medium to deep in depth, regular topo-sequence occur. Landslides and soil erosion
are very common.
Soil fertility: These soils are responds well to N application and under high production system,
management of P is also limiting. Almost all soils are deficient in N and these soils are low in
OC. This results in low MHC.
Soil water relation: Texture and depth of soils determines the stored water. 20-30 % retention of
water /m depth of soils. In high RF areas double cropping is possible in these regions.
Lecture 6. Soil and water conservation Practices (Engineering measures of S&WC)
Because of high intensity rains and lack of proper vegetative cover every year billions of
tones of top fertile soil is lost for production. That apart, the scarce water is also lost. The extent
of loss depends on rainfall characteristics, soil properties and topographic features. E.g. Less
permeable black soils are more erosion prone than red soils. Estimates suggest nearly 10 to 40
per cent annual rainfall and about 12 to 43 tones /ha/year top soil is lost in black soils. Unless
measures of soil and moisture conservation are initiated it is not possible to enhance and stabilize
productivity. A three tier approach comprising of a. Terrace level practices, b. Inter-terrace land
management, and c. Runoff harvesting and recycling is, therefore, developed.
Terrace level practices
Different terrace level practices vis-à-vis the mechanical structures are in practice in
different parts of the country. The suitability and adoption of these structures mainly depend on
rainfall, soil type, its topographic features, socio-economic conditions and the extent of soil
erosion. If strict contour cultivation can be implemented, then engineering measures are not
necessary for lands up to one per cent slope. Since it is not possible always to follow strict
contour cultivation, it is essential to adopt engineering measures on lands sloping 0.5 percent and
above. Different mechanical structures are-
- Contour bunds
- Graded bunds
- Zing conservation terrace
- Conservation ditches
- Puertorican type of terraces
- Broad based terrace
- Contour boarder strips
- Graded boarder strips graded bunds with strip leveling (all in plains)
- Bench terrace (in the hills)
All these structures can be broadly grouped into i. impounding type, and ii. drainage type
of structures.
Bunds
Bunds are small earthen barriers provided across the slope to agricultural lands with
slopes ranging from 1 to 6 per cent. They control effective length of slope and thereby reduce the
gain in velocity of runoff flow to avoid rill and gully formation.
Contour bunds (impounding type) are constructed in relatively low rainfall areas having
annual rainfall of less than 600 mm particularly in light textured and shallow soils.
The graded bunds are constructed in medium to high rainfall areas having annual rainfall of 600
mm or more and in soils of poor permeability (< 8 mm/hr). Research at UAS Dharwad, revealed
that contour bunds of 1.0 to 1.5 m2 cross section at a vertical interval of 1 to 1.5 m with a little
deviation in shallow black soils are found suitable.
Graded bunds with 0.2 per cent grade and cross section of 0.5 to 0.75 m 2 at a vertical
interval of 1.0 to 1.5 m (depending on land slope) with strip leveling towards the upstream side
of the bund and a protected water way are providing effective conservation of soil and water.
Zing conservation terrace (Zing and Hauser, 1954) is adopted for undertaking cropping
programme in areas having rolling topography and soils relatively heavy in nature ranging from
sandy loam to clay loam with moderate depths. In medium to deep black soils having infiltration
rate of more than 8 mm per hr, Zingg conservation terrace of 1:3 leveled to unleveled portion
with ridge section of 1.2 to 1.5 m2 at a vertical interval of 1.0 to 1.5 m have been found suitable.
Yields of crops with zing structures increase considerably due to collection of runoff water at
1/3rd leveled portion of zing conservation from the 2/3rd portion on the upstream side.
Contour border strips are laid in medium to deep black soils having infiltration rate
more than 8 mm/hr. These strips are constructed along contour key lines at a vertical interval of
0.3 m with suitable drop structures at the end of each strip in the inter way ridge section of 0.24
m2 with stabilization by vegetation are found suitably working.
Graded border strips are suitable in medium to deep black soils of more than 45 cm
depth with permeability of less than 8 mm/hr in areas with medium to low rainfall. Graded
border strips of 0.2 percent grade laid out at a vertical interval of 0.3 m with a ridge section of
0.24 m2 and stabilized through vegetation and providing suitable drop structure at the end of each
strip on the waterway are also found suitable in other places.
Broad based terrace is a broad based embankment constructed across the slope of
rolling land. These are primarily meant for moisture conservation on soils where rainfall is low
and slope is less than 6% and soils are fairly deep. These are recommended on vertisols where
soil cracking threatens the stability of the bund. To avoid a continuous crack, the base of the
bund is kept very wide in the range of 5 – 8 m. Due to this large base and relatively flat top,
cultivation is possible on the bund. The bund height may be 0.5 to 0.75 m with longitudinal
grade of 0.1 to 0.2% to drain out runoff without scouring the land. However, it is not appreciated
by farmers due to small holdings and lack of machinery for earth movement.
Conservation ditches: An alternative to contour and graded bunding was initiated in
1976 al Bellary. Conservation ditches (1.55 m2 cross section, 30 m length, and depth of 0.6 m)
need be constructed at 75 m spacing on land with slope about 1%. Rooted slips of Dicanthium
annulatum be planted on the ditch sides both protection of the sides from scouring and also for
putting them to productive use. The conservation ditch is essentially an inward form of contour
bund sunken into the ground, with flatter upstream side slopes provided for safety against
scouring by the incoming runoff.
Contour based bunds have not received wide spread endorsement of the Indian farmers
due to reasons of cost, durability, loss of area, problems of maintenance and above all their
disregard to the ownership boundaries. They also resulted in yield reductions due to stagnation of
water on the upstream side of the bund. Shifting to graded bunds in place of on tour bunds
helped mainly in reducing size of earth work and cost of construction, but the problems as
disposal of excess water continued.
To cater the needs of small and marginal farmers, vegetative barriers (also known as live
bunds) for rain water conservation and also to regulate silt less over flows have been emphasized
during the last few years. Although maximum attention has been placed on vetiver or khus
(Veriveria zizanioides), it has hardly shown any distinct superiority over other vegetative barriers
generated from anjan grass (Cenchrus ciliaris), lemon grass (Cymbopogon flexuosus), brown
grass (Thysanolaena maxima) and subabul (Leucaena leucocephala). Despite requiring a small
area, less maintenance and efficiency than equals earthen structures in conserving rain water,
vegetative barriers too have not found wide scale farmers’ acceptance. Difficulty in initial
establishment and subsequent protection from uncontrolled cattle grazing and rodent attack
continue to pose serious challenge to their acceptance.
Lecture 7. Agronomic measures of soil and water conservation
a) Tillage/land preparations : Land preparation including post harvest tillage influence intake
of water, obstruction to surface flow and consequently the rate of erosion. Deep ploughing or
chiseling has been found effective in reducing erosion. Rough cloddy surface is also effective in
reducing erosion.
b) Contour cultivation (Contour farming): A line joining the points of equal elevation is
called contour. All the cultural practices such as ploughing, sowing, inter cultivation etc. done
across the slope reduce soil and water loss. By ploughing and sowing across the slope, each ridge
of plough furrow and each row of the crop act as obstruction to the runoff and provide more time
for water to enter into the soil leading to reduced soil and water
c) Choice of crops: Row crops or tall growing crops such as sorghum, maize, pearl millet
etc.,are not effective in conserving soil as they expose majority of the soil and hence they are
known as erosion permitting crops. Whereas, close growing crops such as cowpea, groundnut,
green gram, black gram etc., which protect soil are known as erosion resisting crops as they are
very effective in reducing soil loss by minimizing the impact of rain drop and acting as
obstruction to runoff.
d) Strip cropping: It is a system of growing of few rows of erosion resisting crops and erosion
permitting crops in alternate strips on contour (across the slope) with the objective of breaking
long slopes to prevent soil loss and runoff. Close growing erosion resisting crops reduce the
transporting and eroding power of water by obstructing runoff and filtering sediment from runoff
to retain in the field. The width of the erosion permitting and erosion resisting crops vary as per
the slope of the field. The strip cropping resembles the intercropping.

With increase in per cent slope of the soil, the width of erosion permitting and erosion resisting
crops decreases. The normal ratio between the erosion resisting crops and erosion permitting
crops is 1: 3. Among the different crops the anti erosion value of pillipesara is highest, where as
cotton crop recorded the lowest value.
The strip cropping is divided into four types as follows
i) Contour strip cropping: The erosion permitting crops and erosion resisting crops are grown
in alternate strips along the contours.
ii) Field strip cropping: Alternate strips of erosion permitting crops and erosion resisting crops
are raised across the general slope not necessarily on exact contour
iii) Wind strip cropping: Strip cropping of erosion permitting and erosion resisting crops across
the direction of the most prevailing wind irrespective of the contour.
iv) Buffer strip cropping: this type of strip cropping is practiced in areas having steep slopes
and badly eroded soils where strips of permanent cover crops or perennial legumes or grasses or
shrubs are alternated with field crops. The strip cropping is simple, cheap and effective soil
conservation practice and can be adopted by the farmers.
e) Crop rotation / cropping system: Mono cropping of erosion permitting crops accelerates soil
and water loss year after year. Intercropping of erosion permitting crops and erosion resisting
crops or their rotation has been found effective for reducing soil and water loss. Inclusion of
legumes like lucerne in crop rotation reduces soil loss even in soils having 13% slope.
f) Cover crops: Good ground cover by canopy gives the protection to the land like an umbrella
and minimize soil erosion. Besides conserving soil and moisture, the cover crops hold those
soluble nutrients, which are lost by leaching. The third advantage of the cover crops is the
addition of organic matter. The legumes provide better cover and better protection. Among the
legumes cowpea has been found to produce maximum canopy followed by horse gram, green
gram, black gram and dhaincha.
g) Mulching: Mulching of soil with available plant residues reduce soil loss considerably by
protecting the soil from direct impact of raindrop and reducing the sediment carried with
runoff .A minimum plant residue cover of 30 per cent is necessary to keep runoff and soil loss
within the acceptable limits. Vertical mulching also reduces soil loss particularly in vertisols by
increasing infiltration.
Types of mulches
a. Soil mulch or dust mulch: soil mulch is a thin layer of loose soil surface that can be
created by frequently stirring the soil with surface tillage implements like danthis,
 guntakas (blade harrows) etc., Soil mulch of surface 5-8 cm dry soil effectively reduces
the evaporation losses by obstructing the raise of soil moisture through capillary action.
The soil mulch also prevents deep cracks in soils (especially blackbsoils) by reducing the
direct action of atmosphere and hence evaporation is also reduced. The repeated
intercultivations done in rabi crops even in the absence of weeds help in reducing
evaporation losses. Among the different mulches soil mulch is the cheapest.
b. Sand mulch: Sand mulching has been practiced by farmers in some pockets of North
Karnataka. improved crop yield to increased soil temperature, conservation of rain water,
reduced evaporation, wind and water erosion which in turn increased water content at any
time under sand mulch
c. Residue/ Straw and stubble mulch: Straw and other crop residues like stubbles,
groundnut shells, cotton stalks etc; can be used as mulches on soil surface for moisture
conservation. Straw mulches reduce both the amount of energy absorbed by the soil and
its movement above the soil and hence reduce evaporation
d. Plastic mulches: Plastic mulches are very effective as mulches for evaporation control
provided cost is not a limiting factor. The plastic mulches may be either white or black.
Black plastic mulches will absorb the solar radiation and enhance the soil temperature for
hastening the germination of winter crops like wheat; barley etc., White plastic mulches
will reflect the incident radiation and reduce evaporation of soil moisture.
e. Chemical mulches: Chemicals like hexadeconol, a long chain alcohol when mixed with
surface 5 mm of soil can reduce evaporation by about 40%. The surface layer of a treated
soil dries out more rapidly than that of untreated soil, creating a diffusional layer to
evaporation.
e. Vertical mulching: It is a technique wherein trenches of 40 cm wide, 15 cm deep are dug
at 2 to 4 m interval across slope and filled with stubbles or organic wastes to a height of 10-15
cm above soil surface. Runoff is checked, collected in the shallow trenches and redistributed to
adjoining soil layers and infiltration is increased in black soils.
f. Live mulching: Is the term used to describe the covering of soil surface through the plant
canopy in intercropping system. Eg. Sorghum + forage cowpea, sorghum + sword bean
g. Pebble mulch: Where small pebbles like stone are placed on the soil surface This mulching
will be successful in dryland fruit tree culture. The pebbles placed on the basins of trees not only
reduce evaporation but also facilitate infiltration of rain water into the basin Mulching is more
advantageous during rabi/summer months than in kharif season.
h) Application of manures and fertilizers: Organic manures besides supplying nutrients
improve soil physical conditions thereby reduce soil loss. Fertilizers improve vegetative canopy,
which aid in erosion control. i) Use of chemicals: Breakdown of aggregates by the falling
raindrops is the main cause of detachment of soil particles. Soils with stable aggregates resist
breakdown and thus resist erosion. Aggregate stability can be increased by spraying chemicals
like poly vinyl alcohol @ 480 kg/ha (rate will depend on the type of soil). Soils treated with
bitumen increase water stable aggregates and infiltration capacity of the soil.
III. Forestry Measures:
Forest lands are usually found at higher elevations where the slopes are steepest, soils are less
stable and easily eroded and precipitation is heavy. The leaves and branches of trees and shrubs
intercept the rain and reduce the impact of raindrops. Contour trenching and aforestation is
recommended for improving the productivity of forests. Contour trenching is done by excavating
a trench along the contour and forming soil bank. Rain water thus held up in these trenches for
some time and facilitates the growth of vegetation. Plants are sown in trenches taking advantage
of water. Tree species suitable are Pinus patula, Pinus kesia, Acacia nilotica, Eucalyptus
camaldulensis etc.
IV . Agrostological Measures:
Grasses prevent erosion by intercepting rainfall and by their binding power of the soil particles.
A grass-legume association is ideal for soil conservation. Legumes build up soil fertility by
fixing atmospheric N in root nodules. Grasses have several uses in soil conservation like:
 Stabilizing the surfaces of water ways, contour bunds and front faces of bench terraces
 Stabilizing the gully slopes and sides
 Preventing wind erosion
The desirable characters of grasses for soil conservation are:
 Should be perennial
 Drought resistant
 Rhizomniferous
  Develop good canopy
 Deep root system
 Prostate growth habit
 Less palatable to cattle
 Useful for cottage industries
Useful grasses:
Cenchrus ciliaris, Chloris guyana, Cynodon dactylon, Dicanthium annulatum, Heteropogan
contortus, Iseilema laxum, Panicum antidotale
Legumes:
Atylosia scarbaceoides, Centrosema pubescence, Stylosanthus hamata,
Grass + legume
a. Cenchrus ciliaris + Stylosanthus hamata, is best for A.P.
Lecture 8. Inter Terrace land management for soil and water conservation (insitu soil and
water conservation measures)

The conventional contour bunds, vegetative barriers or even field boundary bunds their
efficiency can be enhanced through simple land treatments that maximize rain soaking in the
field profile on which it falls (in situ rain water conservation). Stretching infiltration opportunity
time in the field is the fundamental rule to augment in situ rain water conservation.
Tillage practices
Cultivation of soil helps to increase pore space for storage and also keeps soil loose so
that high rate of infiltration is maintained to ward of runoff. Musgrave and Free (1936) found
that cultivation of the surface greatly enhanced water intake of soil particularly in the beginning
of storms. In the absence of cultivation, the highly crusting red soils produce as much or even
more runoff than the low permeability vertisols under similar rainfall situations.
Off season tillage: Early tillage after the harvest of standing crop keeps the land in
rugged condition and helps to avoid the runoff apart from having other benefits such as reduction
in pests and weeds, burial of previous crop residues and reduction in lapse of time between first
rain and actual seeding time.
Shallow tillage soon after rain is beneficial in retaining water in the soil profile and specially
in the fine textured soils. Deep ploughing with inversion plough besides creating surface
inequalities forms an infinite number of small depressions between/ among the clods as storage
spaces for impounding and later leisurely absorbing rainwater received from intense summer
storms.
1. Contour farming
Contour farming or contouring involves application of all tillage operations including
planting on the contour. Since ridge acts as a barrier to the flow of water, contouring ensures less
runoff and erosion. The effectiveness of contour farming in erosion control varies with slope,
crop cover and soil and rainfall characteristics.
On 4 to 6 percent slopes with proper rotation erosion is controlled up to a length of 100
metres. The maximum length on which contouring is effective is 60 m on a 8 percent slope, 30 m
on a 10% percent slope. In India, contour cultivation has been effective on all major soil groups
with a yield of 10 per cent and reduction in soil loss by 50 percent on 2 – 4 percent slope.
 2. Rubble check
Arranging the rubbles on a representative contour key line at a vertical interval of 0.3 m
forms rubble check. These can be constructed on shallow, medium and deep black soils receiving
medium to high rainfall and in areas where rubbles are available in plenty. Bund section of 0.75
m2, base width of 0.5 m and height of 0.3 m were found to act as very good inter terrace land
management practices.
1. Live bund/ vegetative bund
On contour or across slope planting one or two lines of vegetation at close interval of 10
– 20 m in medium to deep black soils have advantages such as
i. Increase area under cultivation by bringing rolling lands under cultivation.
ii. Provide better barrier on vertisols.
iii. Provide more opportunity time for water to soak in to the soil, and
iv. These are simple, easy methods of conservation for common man to follow.
Leucaena, Desmanthus, Sesbania, Glyricidia and variety of grasses could be used for live
bunding. Vitevera was much promoted during the last decade. The research conducted at dry
farming centres, Bangalore (red soil) and Bijapur (Black soil) revealed the utility of I and
Eragrastis kuruala. The leguminous species and other grasses particularly the native ones
besides helping conservation of water and soil, provide fodder for animals, green mass for
incorporation and mulching. Live bunds are much stable than mechanical measures and allow
more water to infiltrate. Yield responses are also encouraging.
The live bunds have to be pruned to the base leaving about 25 – 30 cm of stumps above
the ground so they do not become weedy and compete with field crops. Besides, other
management practices may also be necessary (pruning frequency, etc.).
Ideal vegetative barriers should possess following characters
- Massive finely structured thick root system, which can reinforce the soil at the same time
making it difficult to be dislodged under high wind velocity/flows.
- Stiff and erect stems, which would form a dense hedge when planted and able to trap
sediments besides reducing flow velocity.
- Highly resistant to pests and diseases and fire.
- Tolerance to prolonged drought, submergence and flood.
- Tolerance to extreme climatic variations.
 - Salinity and sodicity.
- Ability to grow quickly, when exposed to adverse condition.
- Advantageous if it is highly efficient in absorbing dissolved contaminants in polluted
water.
While selecting species, its effectiveness as barrier, survival per cent etc. have to be
considered. General experience favour planting of hedge species in twin lines with a intra row
spacing of 10 cm with a small section bund of 30 cm width and 15 cm height in the middle at a
vertical interval of 0.3 m. Two to three seeds or slips can be planted per hill by opening a furrow
of 15 – 20 cm deep. In extreme dry areas of 300 mm rainfall, establish the hedge species in the
centre of two 60 – 90 cm wide about 30 cm deep ‘V’ ditch with 160 0 inner angle. Gap filling is a
part of good management.
In some hedge species border effect to a distance of 30 – 50 cm on either side of hedge
rows with a consequent yield reduction of field crops are observed. However, there would not be
overall yield reduction due to improved performance on interior rows.
5.Vertical Mulching
Vertical mulching is a practice of embedding crop residue in trenches across the slope
and allowing the residues to project 30 – 40 cm above the ground level. Series of vertical mulch
rows in dry land areas provide continuous barrier for the runoff water resulting in more
conservation of water in situ. Increase in crop yields of rabi sorghum have been reported from
Dryland Centre, Bijapur. The residue get decomposed in the soil over time, hence it needs to be
recycled. Availability of residue may be another constraint in many dry farming areas. Results
indicate superior effects of vertical mulching spaced at interval of 4 – 5 m particularly on deep
vertisols with a very low infilteration rate. A modified form of vertical mulching termed slot
mulch is being tested in Pacific North west USA to control runoff on steeply sloping lands. The
approach is to compact loose residues and chaff of a green crop in to a narrow continuous slot
approximately 7 to 13 cm wide and 20 cm deep or more formed on hill side contour. The straw
packed in the slot is left well exposed at the soil surface. The slot mulch is highly effective in
increasing water infiltration in soil, especially where there are restrictions such as frozen surface.
6. Furrowing
– Ridges and furrows
– Furrow dyking
 – Dead furrows
Plough furrows opened at frequent distances across slope as a result more and more
rainwater is conserved in between furrows. Furrows may be at a distance ranging from 0.45 to
10.0 m. in rolling lands the spacing may very from 2.5 m or 4 to 7 crop rows. The furrows should
be laid out on contours or across the major slope. The depth of furrow could be 20 to 30 cm.
Furrowing needs to be done prior to sowing of crops. The furrows could be even tied at regular
distances by constructing small earthen checks (at 3 - 5 m interval) (= furrow dyking/ tide
ridges). The series of earthen dams hold rain water in situ and provide more opportunity time for
it to infiltrate into the soil.
7. Broad bed and furrows (BBF)
The ICRISAT has developed the technique of BBF. Here the land is converted into series
of alternate beds and furrows for conservation as well as disposal of water (runoff). Furrow (0-15
cm wide) and bed (0.9 to 1.5 m wide depending on row spacing of crops and number of rows to
be sown in each bed) width and length depend on peak rate of runoff and infiltration rate of soil.
The beds are laid out on a grade (0.2 to 0.4%). The furrow holds rain water in years of low
rainfall, while the same furrow serves as a disposal system in years of heavy rainfall. A
perquisite appears to be necessary for opening broad beds and furrows. The land needs to be
graded before laying of BBF. This system is most suitable for high rainfall vertisols areas with
kharif cropping. In very clayey soils, BBF reduces hazards of water logging.
 8. Broad furrows and ridges
At Dry farming Centre, Bijapur this system has been proved effective on medium to deep black
soils having a slope of 21 percent. Here the land is laid out in to broad furrows and narrow ridges
across the slopes. Furrows hold more moisture and a more moisture requiring crop may be grown
in furrows. Ridges may be uncroppped or planted with tall components like pigeonpea. In heavy
rainfall areas in upland situation such a system helps to grow paddy in the furrows and arable
cotton on the ridges to get best use of available rains.
9. Scooping
Scooping is a low cost in situ conservation measure. The scoops or small depressions
created with the help of a wooden hoe with plank attached to prongs or basin lister (scooper)
hold moisture and allow it to infiltrate. This measure is best suited for deep black soils (vertisols)
where post rainy season cropping on stored soil moisture is predominant. Yield increase by 19 to
20 per cent due to scoops has been reported from Dry farming centre, Hgari (Bellary). As
compared to flat beds
10. Compartment bunding
In lands sloping up to 2 percent, compartment bunding is a best low costing in situ water
conservation measure. This is recommended for medium and deep black soils where rabi
cropping is taken up. compartment bunds of 10 m X 10 m formed with the help of bund farmer
are ideal. However, compartment bunding could be practiced in lands sloping between 1 to 2
percent, compartment bunds of 6.0 m X6.0 m could be formed, while the size of the
compartment may be 4.5m X 4.5 m for lands between 2 to 3 percent, and the same may be 3.0
mX 3.0 m for areas having slope of more than 3 percent.
11. Mulching : Mulch is any covering material applied on the soil surface to reduce evaporation
losses. This material may be grown and maintained in place, or any material grown and
 modified before placement or any material processed or manufactured and transported before
placement.
II. Mechanical / Engineering measures of soil and water conservation
When Agronomic measures alone are not adequate, mechanical measures are to be adopted
to supplement the agronomic measures. Mechanical measures usually involve construction of
mechanical barriers across the direction of flow of rainwater to retard or retain runoff and
thereby reduce soil and water loss. The mechanical measures include:

 Contour bunding
 Graded bunding
 Bench terracing
 Gully control / plugging
 Vegetative barriers etc.

Gully control:
Gullies the result of sheet and rill erosion left unchecked. The basic approach to gully control
involves reduction of peak flow rates through the gully and provision of channel for the runoff
water. Agronomic measures of soil conservation like contour cultivation, strip cropping, cover
crops, mulching etc., aid in reducing the peak flow rates through gullies. The provision of the
stable channel for the flow that must be handled is accomplished by stabilizing the gully sides
and bed by establishing vegetation. Temporary structures such as brush check wood dams, loose
rock dams, rock fill dams and woven wire dams, and permanent structures such as chute spill
ways, drop spill ways, concrete check dams and pipe spill ways are practiced for reducing
channel gradient to maintain velocities below erosive level Concrete check dam for gully control
Loose boulder check dam for gully erosion control
Vegetative barriers:
These are the rows of closely planted grass or shrub along the contours for erosion control in
Agricultural lands. They check the velocity of runoff and retain the sediment by acting as barrier
to runoff. Khus Khus (Vetiveria zyzynoides) is the most recommended plant for this purpose.
Grassed waterways: These are drainage channels either developed by shaping the existing
drainage ways or constructed separately for effecting drainage of agricultural lands. They are
used to handle runoff, discharge from graded bunds, broad base terraces and bench terraces.
Objectives of grassed waterways
1. To provide drainage to agricultural lands
2. To convert unstable channels or gullies into stable channels by providing grass cover
3. For leading water at non erosive velocity into farm ponds Grassed water ways are normally
dug to a shallow depth of 0.15 to 0.5 m. They are constructed one or two seasons ahead of the
construction of channel terraces.
III. Forestry Measures:
Forest lands are usually found at higher elevations where the slopes are steepest, soils are less
stable and easily eroded and precipitation is heavy. The leaves and branches of trees and shrubs
intercept the rain and reduce the impact of raindrops. Contour trenching and aforestation is
recommended for improving the productivity of forests. Contour trenching is done by excavating
a trench along the contour and forming soil bank. Rain water thus held up in these trenches for
some time and facilitates the growth of vegetation. Plants are sown in trenches taking advantage
of water. Tree species suitable are Pinus patula, Pinus kesia, Acacia nilotica, Eucalyptus
camaldulensis etc.
IV . Agrostological Measures:
Grasses prevent erosion by intercepting rainfall and by their binding power of the soil particles.
A grass-legume association is ideal for soil conservation. Legumes build 67up soil fertility by
fixing atmospheric N in root nodules. Grasses have several uses in soil conservation like:
 Stabilizing the surfaces of water ways, contour bunds and front faces of bench terraces
 Stabilizing the gully slopes and sides
 Preventing wind erosion
The desirable characters of grasses for soil conservation are:
 Should be perennial
 Drought resistant
 Rhizomniferous
 Develop good canopy
 Deep root system
 Prostate growth habit
 Less palatable to cattle
  Useful for cottage industries
Useful grasses:
Cenchrus ciliaris, Chloris guyana, Cynodon dactylon, Dicanthium annulatum, Heteropogan
contortus, Iseilema laxum, Panicum antidotale
Legumes:
Atylosia scarbaceoides, Centrosema pubescence, Stylosanthus hamata,
Grass + legume
b. Cenchrus ciliaris + Stylosanthus hamata, is best for A.P.
Lecture 9. Drought and their classification

Low rainfall or failure of monsoon rain is a recurring feature in India. This has been
responsible for droughts and famines. The word drought generally denotes scarcity of water in a
region. Though, aridity and drought are due to insufficient water, aridity is a permanent climatic
feature and is the culmination of a number of long term processes. However, drought is a
temporary condition that occurs for a short period due to deficient precipitation for vegetation,
river flow, water supply and human consumption. Drought is due to anomaly in atmospheric
circulation.
Definition of drought
There is no universally accepted definition for drought. a) Early workers defined drought as
prolonged period without rainfall. b) According to Ramdas (1960) drought is a situation when
the actual seasonal rainfall is deficient by more than twice the mean deviation. c) American
Meteorological Society defined drought as a period of abnormally dry weather sufficiently
prolonged for lack of water to cause a severe hydrological imbalance in the area affected. d)
Prolonged deficiencies of soil moisture adversely affect crop growth indicating incidence of
agricultural drought. It is the result of imbalance between soil moisture and evapo-transpiration
needs of an area over a fairly long period so as to cause damage to standing crops and to reduce
the yields. e) The irrigation commission of India defines drought as a situation occurring in any
area where the annual rainfall is less than 75% of normal rainfall.
Classification of drought
Drought can be classified based on duration, nature of users, time of occurrence and using some
specific terms.
I. Based on duration
a. Permanent drought: This is characteristic of the desert climate where sparse vegetation
growing is adapted to drought and agriculture is possible only by irrigation during entire crop
season.
b. Seasonal drought: This is found in climates with well defined rainy and dry seasons. Most of
the arid and semiarid zones fall in this category. Duration of the crop varieties and planting dates
should be such that the growing season should fall within rainy season.
c. Contingent drought: This involves an abnormal failure of rainfall. It may occur almost
anywhere especially in most parts of humid or sub humid climates. It is usually brief, irregular
and generally affects only a small area.
d. Invisible drought: This can occur even when there is frequent rain in an area. When rainfall
is inadequate to meet the evapo-transpiration losses, the result is borderline water deficiency in
soil resulting in less than optimum yield. This occurs usually in humid regions.
II.Based on relevance to the users (National Commission on Agriculture, 1976)
a) Meteorological drought: It is defined as a condition, where the annual precipitation is less
than the normal over an area for prolonged period (month, season or year).
b) Atmospheric drought: It is due to low air humidity, frequently accompanied by hot dry
winds. It may occur even under conditions of adequate available soil moisture. It refers to a
condition when plants show wilting symptoms during the hot part of the day when transpiration
exceeds absorption temporarily for a short period. When absorption keeps pace with
transpiration the plants revive. (Mid day wilt).
c) Hydrological drought: Meteorological drought, when prolonged results in hydrological
drought with depletion of surface water and consequent drying of reservoirs, tanks etc. It results
in deficiency of water for all sectors using water. This is based on water balance and how it
affects irrigation as a whole for bringing crops to maturity.
d) Agricultural drought (soil drought): It is the result of soil moisture stress due to imbalance
between available soil moisture and evapotranspiration of a crop. It is usually gradual and
progressive. Plants can therefore, adjust at least partly, to the increased soil moisture stress. This
situation arises as a consequence of scanty precipitation or its uneven distribution both in space
and time. Relevant definition of agricultural drought appears to be a period of dryness during the
crop season, sufficiently prolonged to adversely affect the yield. The extent of yield loss depends
on the crop growth stage and the degree of stress. It does not begin when the rain ceases, but
actually commences only when the plant roots are not able to obtain the soil moisture rapidly
enough to replace evapotranspiration losses.
III. Based on time of occurrence
a) Early season drought: It occurs due to delay in onset of monsoon or due to long dry spells
after early sowing
b) Mid season drought: Occurs due to long gaps between two successive rains and stored
moisture becoming insufficient during the long dry spell.
c) Late season drought: Occurs due to early cessation of rainfall and crop water stress at
maturity stage.
Other terms to describe drought
a) Relative drought: The drought for one crop may not be a drought situation for another crop.
This is due to mismatch between soil moisture condition and crop selection. For Eg. A condition
may be a drought situation for growing rice, but the same situation may not be a drought for
growing groundnut.
b) Physiological drought: Refers to a condition where crops are unable to absorb water from
soil even when water is available, due to the high osmotic pressure of soil solution due to
increased soil concentration, as in saline and alkaline soils. It is not due to deficit of water
supply.
Important causes for agricultural drought are
• Inadequate precipitation
• Erratic distribution
• Long dry spells in the monsoon
• Late onset of monsoon
• Early withdrawal of monsoon
• Lack of proper soil and crop management
Periodicity of drought
The Indian Meteorological Department examined the incidence of drought for the period from
1871 to 1967, utilizing the monthly rainfall of 306 stations in the country. It was seen that during
1877, 1899, 1918 and 1972 more than 40 per cent of the total area experienced drought. General
observation on the periodicity of drought in respect of different meteorological sub divisions of
India is given below.
Effect of drought on crop production
a) Water relations: Alters the water status by its influence on absorption, translocation and
transpiration. The lag in absorption behind transpiration results in loss of turgor as a result of
increase in the atmospheric dryness.
b)Photosynthesis: Photosynthesis is reduced by moisture stress due to reduction in
Photosynthetic rate, chlorophyll content, leaf area and increase in assimilates saturation in leaves
(due to lack of translocation).
c) Respiration: Increase with mild drought but more serve drought lowers water content and
respiration.
d) Anatomical changes: Decrease in size of the cells and inter cellular spaces, thicker cell wall ,
greater development of mechanical tissue. Stomata per unit leaf tend to increase.
e) Metabolic reaction: All most all metabolic reactions are affected by water deficits.
f) Hormonal Relationships: The activity of growth promoting hormones like cytokinin,
gibberlic acid and indole acetic acid decreases and growth regulating hormone like abscisic acid,
ethylene, etc., increases.
g) Nutrition: The fixation, uptake and assimilation of nitrogen is affected. Since dry matter
production is considerably reduced the uptake of NPK is reduced.
h) Growth and Development: Decrease in growth of leaves, stems and fruits. Maturity is
delayed if drought occurs before flowering while it advances if drought occurs after flowering.
i) Reproduction and grain growth: Drought at flowering and grain development determines the
number of fruits and individual grain weight, respectively. Panicle initiation in cereals is critical
while drought at anthesis may lead to drying of pollen. Drought at grain development reduces
yield while vegetative and grain filling stages are less sensitive to moisture stress.
j) Yield: The effect on yield depends hugely on what proportion of the total dry matter is
considered as useful material to be harvested. If it is aerial and underground parts, effect of
drought is as sensitive as total growth. When the yield consists of seeds as in cereals, moisture
stress at flowering is detrimental. When the yield is fibre or chemicals where economic product
is a small fraction of total dry matter moderate stress on growth does not have adverse effect on
yields.
Lecture 10. Crop Adaptations to drought

The ability of crop to grow satisfactorily under water stress is called drought adaptation.
Adaptation is structural or functional modification in plants to survive and reproduce in a
particular environment. Crops survive and grow under moisture stress conditions mainly by two
ways: (i) escaping drought and (ii) drought resistance

Fig. Flow chart showing different mechanisms for overcoming moisture stress
Escaping Drought
Evading the period of drought is the simplest means of adaptation of plants to dry
conditions. Many desert plants, the so called ephemerals, germinate at the beginning of the rainy
season and have an extremely short life period (5 to 6 weeks) which is confined to the rainy
period. These plants have no mechanism for overcoming moisture stress and are, therefore, not
drought resistant. Germination inhibitors serve as safety mechanism. In cultivated crops, the
ability of a cultivar to mature before the soil dries is the main adaptation to growth in dry
regions. However, only very few crops have such a short growing season to be called as
ephemerals. Certain varieties of pearl millet mature within 60 days after sowing. Short duration
pulses like cowpea, greengram, blackgram can be included in this category. In addition to
earliness, they need drought resistance because there may be dry spells within the crop period of
60 days. The disadvantage about breeding early varieties is that yield is reduced with reduction
in duration.
Drought Resistance
Plants can adopt to drought either by avoiding stress or by tolerating stress due to different
mechanisms. These mechanisms provide drought resistance.
Avoiding Stress
Stress avoidance is the ability to maintain a favourable water balance, and turgidity even when
exposed to drought conditions, thereby avoiding stress and its consequences.
A favourable water balance under drought conditions can be achieved either by:
(i) Conserving water by restricting transpiration before or as soon as stress is
experienced; or
(ii) (ii) accelerating water uptake sufficiently so as to replenish the lost water.
Strategies for drought management
The different strategies for drought management are discussed under the following heads.
a) Adjusting the plant population: The plant population should be lesser in dryland conditions
than under irrigated conditions. The rectangular type of planting pattern should always be
followed under dryland conditions. Under dryland conditions whenever moisture stress occurs
due to prolonged dry spells, under limited moisture supply the adjustment of plant population
can be done by a) Increasing the inter row distance: By adjusting more number of plants
withinthe row and increasing the distance between the rows reduces the competition during any
part of the growing period of the crop. Hence it is more suitable for limited moisture supply
conditions.
b) Increasing the intra row distance: Here the distance between plants is increased by which
plants grow luxuriantly from the beginning. There will be competition for moisture during the
reproductive period of the crop. Hence it is less advantageous as compared to above under
limited moisture supply.
Mid season corrections:
The contingent management practices done in the standing crop to overcome the unfavourable
soil moisture conditions due to prolonged dry spells are known as mid season conditions.
a) Thinning: This ca be done by removing every alternate row or every third row which will
save the crop from failure by reducing the competition
b) Spraying: In crops like groundnut, castor, redgram, etc., during prolonged dry spells the crop
can saved by spraying water at weekly intervals or 2 per cent urea at week to 10 days interval.
c) Ratooning: In crops like sorghum and bajra, ratooning can practiced as mid season correction
measure after break of dry spell.
Mulching: It is a practice of spreading any covering material on soil surface to reduce
evaporation losses. The mulches will prolong the moisture availability in the soil and save the
crop during drought conditions.
Weed control: Weeds compete with crop for different growth resources ore seriously under
dryland conditions. The water requirement of most of the weeds is more than the crop plants.
Hence they compete more for soil moisture. Therefore the weed control especially during early
stages of crop growth reduce the impact of dry spell by soil moisture conservation.
Water harvesting and life saving irrigation: The collection of run off water during peak
periods of rainfall and storing in different structures is known as water harvesting. The stored
water can be used for giving the life saving irrigation during prolonged dry spells.
Mid season correction / crop life saving techniques
In drylands moisture is insufficient for crop production quite often. Farmers take up
sowing when sufficient moisture is therein the soil. When the soil profile is wet for 30 – 40 cm, it
is sufficient to meet the initial crop requirement of moisture. Plants tolerate stress up to 30 – 35
days and later on start wilting. During this stage there is need to introduce or super impose mid
season correction to save the standing crop otherwise whole crop is lost. Important remedial
measures suggested are discussed here.
1. Thinning of the stands
If there is failure of rain immediately after sowing that is at about 30 – 35 days of sowing
or bit later it is required to thin down the crop. At this stage the crop is about to enter grand
growth stage with increased leaf area which starts to deplete soil moisture at a rapid rate and if
there is no replenishment of water the crop suffers at reproductive stage resulting in poor or no
harvest at all. At this stage if thinning is attended the competition for moisture is reduced, the
rate of depletion is reduced and the remaining stand can make best use of the available moisture
and could yield near normal.
Thinning therefore has been suggested by removing alternate lines or every line after two
or three lines in crops like pearl millet, sorghum, groundnut etc. This can be attended by blading
out the row during intercultivation around 30 – 35 days. In an intercropping system the most
sensitive / exhaustive crop (such as maize) may be removed.
2. Removal of weaklings
In most of dryland crops there may not be uniform emergence because of soil variation,
different depth of sowing or in adequacy of soil moisture at sowing. In depressions, there may be
quick germination and on ridges there may be slow germination. In most of the cereals late
germinated seedlings will not be vigorously growing and may not be competitive to give any
yield. In sorghum, 20 – 25 % of weaklings are observed. These have to be removed within 30 to
45 days coinciding with flower primordial initiation stage and any correction after this stage is
not going to help even in irrigated soil.
3. Repeated and deep inter cultivation
Early breaks in rainfall bring about soil cracking early in the season. This enhances
evaporation loss of moisture through the cavities. To prevent soil cracking and to break the
capillary loss early, deep and frequent inter cultivations are required. Instead of the normal 3
hoeings, six hoeings can create good dust mulch with good impact on existing crop. Generally
entire blade or slit blade hoes are employed which penetrates to a depth of 5 - 7.5 cm. Shovel
type of inter culturing hoes with iron prongs or coulters need to be used which with its sharp
cutting edge can tear off the soil and create a dust mulch to a depth of 10 -12 cm.
4. Mulching
If the break in monsoon is very brief, soil mulching with residues may be helpful to
extend the period of storage of water in soil profile by way of reducing heat load on soil and by
avoiding direct contact of dry desiccating wind with soil surface. In groundnut (cv. S 206)
beneficial effects of mulching after germination were comparable to the crop receiving one
protective irrigation. Availability of mulch material may be a problem. There is also added cost
due to procurement and transportation. The locally available material like unwanted vegetation
on bunds or in wastelands may be made use for this purpose. A minimum of 5 t ha -1 residue is
required to have any cognigible impact of mulching.
5. Striping of older leaves
Older leaves are still active and are not dead. As these are shaded they transpire more
than helping in photosynthesis. So to avoid moisture loss stripping of older leaves to direct
moisture and nutrients to actively growing parts is suggested. In local sorghum, 12 – 15 leaves
are produced. When the plants are in flag leaf stage, strip of the bottom 3 – 4 leaves and use them
for mulching of for feeding the livestock. In maize growing areas it is a practice to cut the top
portion above the cob after milking stage.
6. Ratooning
In case of kharif season in all dry zones of Karnataka intermittent dry spells ranging from
4 – 6 weeks are common adversely affecting crop yields. Finger millet is a drought resistance
crop and it rejuvenates with occurrence of rains. In case of pearl millet when crop is exposed to
dry spells of 30 – 35 days during peak growth yields are drastically reduced. Under such
condition cut / harvest the crop for fodder purpose and allow the ratoon for seeding. Such a
practice should be done with the onset of rains (after experiencing drought). For quick
rejuvenation supplemental addition of N fertilizer is suggested.
7. Application of nutrients to rejuvenate growth
Sometimes to rejuvenate the growth activity after receiving rains after a long break
supplementation of nutrients through urea, DAP, MgSO4 or FeSO4 is suggested. For example in
the northern dry zone of Karnataka foliar spray of urea (2 %) and FeSO4 (0.25 %) immediately
after rains in groundnut crop is recommended for quick revival of the plant.
8. Life saving irrigation
If there are form ponds or seasonal streams, life saving irrigation could be given to save
the crop. Runoff is inevitable in tropical and subtropical climates of our country. It accounts for
10 – 40 per cent of the total rainfall. Of this runoff, at least 50 per cent could be harvested and
released for crop use.
8. Use of Antitanspirants
There are certain chemicals, which are found to reduce water loss from plant surface on
application. Such of the chemicals may be used whenever condition warrants for their use due to
inadequacy of soil moisture.
 Lecture 11. Water harvesting and its importance
Introduction
Rainwater is the key input in dryland agriculture. In a tropical country such as India
which experiences extreme variation in rainfall both in space and time, rain water management
assumes vital importance in cutting down risks and stabilizing crop production in dry areas.
When rains are received with an intensity far reaching infiltration rate, runoff is inevitable. It
varies from 10 to 40% of total rainfall. Of this at least 30% can be harvested into water storage
structures.
Water Harvesting
The process of runoff collection during periods of peak rainfall in storage tanks, ponds
etc., is known as water harvesting. It is a process of collection of runoff water from treated or
untreated land surfaces/ catchments or roof tops and storing it in an open farm pond or closed
water tanks/reservoirs or in the soil itself (in situ moisture storage) for irrigation or drinking
purposes.
Runoff farming and rainwater harvesting agriculture are synonymous terms, which imply
that farming is done in dry areas by means of runoff from a catchment. Runoff farming is
basically a water harvesting system specially designed to provide supplemental or life saving
irrigation to crops, especially during periods of soil moisture stress. Collecting and storing water
for subsequent use is known as water harvesting. It is a method to induce, collect, store and
conserve local surface runoff form agriculture in arid and semiarid regions.
All water harvesting systems have three components viz., the catchment area, the storage
facility and the command area. The catchment area is the part of the land that contributes the rain
water. The storage facility is a place where the runoff water is stored from the time it is collected
until it is used. The command area is where water is used. Water harvesting is done both in arid
and semi-arid regions with certain differences. In arid regions, the collecting area or catchment
area is substantially in higher proportion compared to command area. Actually, the runoff is
induced in catchment area in arid lands whereas in semi-arid regions, runoff is not induced in
catchment area, only the excess rainfall is collected and stored. However, several methods of
water harvesting are used both in arid and semiarid regions.
Inducing Runoff
Rain water harvesting is possible even in areas with as little as 50 to 80 mm average
annual rainfall. Ancient desert dwellers harvested rain by redirecting the water running down the
slopes into fields or cisterns. This small amount of runoff collected over large area may be useful
for supplying water to small villages, households, cattle etc., For collection of higher amount of
rainfall, runoff is induced either by land alteration or by chemical treatment.
a) Land Alterations: Clearing away rocks and vegetation and compacting the soil surface can
increase runoff. However, land alteration may lead to soil erosion except where slope is reduced.
When erosion is not excessive and low cost hill side land is available, land alteration can be very
economical way to harvest rain water in arid lands.
b) Chemical Treatment: A promising method for harvesting rain water is to treat soils with
chemicals that fill pores or make soil repellant to water. Some materials used for this purpose are
sodium salts of silicon, latexes, asphalt and wax.
Methods of Water Harvesting
The different methods of water harvesting that are followed in arid and semiarid regions are
discussed separately.
Arid Regions
The catchment area should provide enough water to mature the crop, and the type of farming
practiced must make the best use of water. In general, perennial crops are suitable as they have
deep root systems that can use runoff water stored deep in the soil which is not lost through
evaporation.
a) Water Spreading: In arid areas, the limited rainfall is received as short intense storms. Water
swiftly drains into gullies and then flows towards the sea. Water is lost to the region and floods
caused by this sudden runoff can be devastating often to areas otherwise untouched by the storm.
Water spreading is a simple irrigation method for use in such a situation. Flood waters are
deliberately diverted from their natural courses and spread over adjacent plains. The water is
diverted or retarded by ditches, dikes, small dams or brush fences. The wet flood plains or valley
floods are used to grow crops.
b) Microcatchments: A plant can grow in a region with too little rainfall for its survival if a rain
water catchment basin is built around it. At the lowest point within each microcatchment, a basin
is dug about 40 cm deep and a tree is planted in it. The basin stores the runoff from
microcatchment.
c) Traditional water harvesting systems: Tanka, nadi, khadin are the important traditional water
harvesting systems of Rajasthan. Tanka is an underground tank or cistern constructed for
collection and storage of runoff water from natural catchment or artificially prepared catchment
or from a roof top. The vertical walls are lined with stone masonary or cement concrete and the
base with 10 cm thick concrete. The capacity of the tank ranges from 1000 to 6,00,000 l, Nadi or
village pond is constructed for storing water from natural catchments. The capacity of nadis
ranges from 1200 m3 to 15000 m3- . Khadin is unique land use system where in run off water
from rocky catchments are collected in valley plains during rainy season. Crops are grown in the
winter season after water is receded in shallow pond on the residual moisture.
Semiarid Regions
Water harvesting techniques followed in semi-arid areas are numerous and also ancient.
a) Dug Wells: Hand dug wells have been used to collect and store underground water and this
water is lifted for irrigation. The quality of water is generally poor due to dissolved salts.
b) Tanks: Runoff water from hill sides and forests is collected on the plains in tanks. The
traditional tank system has following components viz., catchment area, storage tank, tank bund,
sluice, spill way and command area. The runoff water from catchment area is collected and
stored in storage tank on the plains with the help of a bund. To avoid the breaching of tank bund,
spillways are provided at one or both the ends of the tank bund to dispose of excess water. The
sluice is provided in the central area of the tank bund to allow controlled flow of water into the
command area.
c) Percolation Tanks: Flowing rivulets or big gullies are obstructed and water is ponded. Water
from the ponds percolates into the soil and raises the water table of the region. The improved
water level in the wells lower down the percolation tanks are used for supplemental irrigation
d) Farm Ponds: These are small storage structures for collection and storage of runoff water.
Depending upon their construction and suitability to different topographic conditions farm ponds
are classified as
_ Excavated farm ponds suitable for flat topography
_ Embankment ponds for hilly terrains and
_ Excavated cum Embankment ponds
There are three types of excavated farm ponds – square, rectangular and circular. Circular ponds
have high water storage capacity. Farm ponds of size 100 to 300 m3 may be dug to store 30 per
cent of runoff. The problem associated with farm ponds in red soils is high seepage loss. This
can be reduced by lining walls.
Some of the traditional methods for seepage control are the use of bentonite, soil
dispersants and soil-cement mixture. Bentonite has excellent sealing properties if kept
continuously wet, but cracks develop when dried. Soil-cement mixture can be used. A soil-
cement lining of 100 mm thickness reduces seepage losses up to 100 per cent. The pit lined
continuously develops cracks but no cracks develop when applied in blocks. The other
alternative sealant for alfisols is a mixture of red soil and black soil in the ratio of 1: 2. In arid
and semi-arid regions, rains are sometimes received in heavy down pours resulting in runoff. The
runoff event ranges from 4 to 8 during the rainy season in arid and semi-arid region. The
percentage of runoff ranges from 10 to 30% of total rainfall.
The size of the farm pond depends on the rainfall, slope of the soil and catchment area.
The dimensions may be in the range of 10 m x 10 m x 2.5 m to 15 m x 15 m x 3.5 m. The side
slope 1.5: 1 is considered sufficient. A silt trap is constructed with a width of slightly higher than
the water course and depth of 0.5 to 1 m and with side slope of 1.5: 1. The different types of
lining materials are soil-cement, red and black soils, cement-concrete, bricks, Kadapa slabs,
stone pitching, polythene sheet etc. In alluvial sandy loam to loamy sand soils of Gujarat and red
sandy loams soils of Bangalore, a soil + cement (8 : 1) mixture is" the best lining material.
 Lecture 12. Efficient utilization of water through Soil and crop management practices

Introduction
In arid and semi arid regions, uncertain erratic and scanty rains coupled with meager
irrigation facilities leads to low and unstable yields. Low and erratic rainfall, high evaporation
rate and limited water holding capacity of surface soils are the main constraints in agricultural
production (Bhan, 1997). In India, average annual rainfall of 1190 mm on 329 million ha makes
a total of 400 million ha m of water, of which 150 million ha m enters into soil. Of the
remaining, about 180 million ha m goes as runoff and 70 million ha m is lost through
evaporation. Of the total runoff, only 20 million ha m is properly harvested by all major and
minor irrigation systems (Reddy and Reddi, 1992). Annual rainfall in several parts of drylands is
sufficient for one or more crops per year. Erratic and high intensity storms leads to runoff and
erosion. The Effective rainfall may be 65% or sometimes less than 50%. Hence, conservation
agriculture is one way of improving soil moisture management.
Soil moisture management for sustainable farming system
A significant cause of low production and crop failure in rainfed agriculture is lack of water in
the soil. This is caused by a combination of low and erratic rainfall and poor utilization of the
water that is available. Soil moisture management is, therefore, a key factor when trying to
enhance agricultural production (Saxena et al., 1998). The major source of water in the arid
region of Western Rajasthan is rainwater. Average annual rainfall is very erratic in amount
(CV>50%), time and space. Intense rain of short duration in sandy soil leads to uncontrolled
movement of water down the slope and cause erosion and unproductive loss of water. This calls
for suitable soil and water conservation measures to be adopted in such areas.
Increasing the amount of water stored in the soil can result in:
● Improving yields (If there are also enough nutrients)
● Reduce risk of yield losses due to drought
● Recharge of groundwater, securing the water level in wells and the continuity of river and
stream flows.
 A little can be done to increase the amount of rainfall or the number of rainfall events, the
focus should be on improving the capture of rainfall, the availability of water in the soil and
water use efficiency in rainfed agricultural lands. This means that the amount of water that enters
the soil (Infiltration) must be increased and that the moisture lost through runoff and evaporation
must be reduced. Increasing soil cover and better soil management can help to achieve this. Soil
should be disturbed as little as possible, there should be permanent soil cover and the amount of
organic matter should be increased. Thus, a sustainable farming system is one in which the
beneficial effects of various conservation practices at least equal or more than offset the adverse
effect of degradative processes.
Treasure hunting in drylands
Water rainfalls on the soil surface, part of it will infiltrate into the soil to replenish soil
water or flow through to recharge the groundwater. Another part will runoff as overland flow and
the remainder will evaporate directly from unprotected soil surfaces and from plant leaves. The
amount of water that can be held in the soil and made available for crops use is not only
determined by the amount of rain that falls but also by the chemical and physical properties of
soil (Benites and Castellanos, 2003). When most people think about soil, they think about the
solid part. But the pore spaces or the structure of the soil are just as important.
Pore spaces
The number, size and continuity between pore spaces play a crucial role in determining the
amount of water that can infiltrate into the soil, and the amount of water that the soil can absorb,
hold and supply back to plants. It is important to have many interconnected pores of a wide range
of sizes, particularly at the soil surface (FAO, 2003). This improves infiltration, reduces runoff
and benefits crop growth. The number, size and connections between soil pores vary according
to the type of soil and the way it is managed. Little can be done about the type of soil, but good
land management can have a great impact on restoring, improving and protecting soil porosity.
This in turn will increase available soil water contents and the interconnected pores will
minimize any potential risk of water logging.
Crop water stress
Crop water stress develops when the plant cannot extract water from the soil through its roots as
fast as it losses moisture from the surfaces of its leaves. To ensure that the crops will be able to
utilize the available rainfall, we must understand the causes of poor soil structure, at the surface
as well as below the surface. At the soil surface, the impact of raindrops on a bare soil surface
can decrease porosity through the formation of surface scales and crusts. These limit the rate of
infiltration, leading to increased runoff. Runoff is responsible for soil erosion and peak river
flows (Shaxson, 2001). Any traffic in the field, such as machinery, ploughing or the impact of
human feet or animal hooves, can put pressure on the sub soil, especially when the soil is in a
moist condition. Pressure destroys pore spaces, in particular the interconnected pore space.
Tillage, in particular turning over the soil by ploughing, can also lead to a decline in soil fertility.
It decreases organic matter content and has a negative effect on soil biological activity, for
example by destroying the burrows of earthworms (McGarry, 2000).
Practices to improve infiltration conserve water and reduce runoff
Conservation of soil and water through scientific techniques is of paramount importance
in areas of low and uncertain rainfall devoid of any assured source of irrigation. Soil
conservation practices viz. bench terracing, land leveling, proper drainage and land configuration
which are aimed at reducing the runoff velocity and increasing the opportunity time for the
rainwater to infilter into soil profile are quite effective in conserving soil and water and
improving crop yields (Saxena et al., 1998). Appropriate land configuration viz. contour
farming, ridge formation, broadbeds, terracing, compartmental bunding, deep tillage, dead
furrows hold great promise for in situ conservation of moisture and nutrients.
Contour bunding
This practice consists of constructing small earthen/loose stone embankment across the slope on
contour at some predetermined spacing.
The main objective of contour bunding is:-
● To intercept the overland runoff flowing down the slope.
● To reduce the velocity of flowing water which causes erosion.
● To provide increased opportunity time for water to infiltrate.
The specification of contour bunding system depends upon rainfall, soil type, slope and
vegetation. Studies conducted at Jadan, Pali (Raj.) showed that contour bunding at 2% slope has
increased the moisture storage by 44.4% and 18.8% respectively when total rainfall were 427
mm and 782 mm. The increase in moisture storage increased the production of grasses in the
area (Bhan, 1997).
Contour trenching
 This practice is suitable for soil and moisture conservation in range/pasture land. The
practice consists of excavation of trenches along the contour and excavated earth is placed on the
down slopes as mound. The trench breaks the slope length, reduces the velocity of surface runoff
and consequently retards its scoring action and carrying capacity (Sardana and Grewal, 2003).
The water retained in the trenches help in onserving moisture and provides advantageous site for
sowing and planting.
Contour farming
Soil erosion is a serious problem in undulating, slopping lands, light textured soils and in high
rainfall areas. Indiscriminate grazing and felling of trees accelerates it. The hilly catchments are
torn by rills and gullies with high drainage density (7-9 km/km2). Under these conditions,
cultural operations should be practiced across the slope i.e. along the contour. Soil erosion can be
checked by contour bunding, ploughing across the slope, plugging of gullies, construction of
bunds, planting trees and shrubs and providing grass cover (Reddy, 1999). Construction of ridges
and furrows and cultivation across the slope on contour lines intercept rainwater and facilitate its
infiltration into soil, for further use of crops.
Field bunding and leveling
Excessive runoff during monsoon results in severe soil erosion causing loss of not only
precious top soil but also nutrients. Farmers generally hesitate to make bunds of adequate
size/section with the notion that it would result in loss of area which could otherwise be used for
crop cultivation and would involve huge investments in construction. However, stabilization of
field bunds pays rich dividends (Sharma and Singh, 2013). Proper land leveling considerably
reduces runoff of water and soil loss. Where slope is <5%, earthen bunds should be made and
major land leveling should be avoided. For areas having <5% slope, construction of bench is
required to reduce erosion and conserve moisture (Sharma and Singh, 2013). The field bunds can
be protected from breaches by planting grasses on top and sides of field bunds. Over a period of
time, such barriers help in automatic leveling.
Runoff farming
High intensity rainstorms are quite common during monsoon resulting in excessive runoff.
Runoff water collection and storage in natural or artificial structures and its effective utilization
are the important aspects of rainwater management (Bhan, 1997). The excess water over and
above storage structures can be directed through grassed waterways to a natural course so that it
does not cause soil erosion. Runoff farming is basically a water harvesting system specially
designed to provide supplemental or life saving irrigation to crops during critical periods of
moisture stress/ critical phenophates of crops of watershed. Efficient rainwater management acts
as insurance for crops during rainfall deficit periods.
Runoff concentration by micro catchment
Under this system, micro catchments with 3-5% slopes on either side are constructed with crop
to catchement ratio of 0.5:1 to 1:1. Catchment can be prepared by scraping the soil from the area
designated as catchment and then shaping it to provide to desired slope (Sardana and Grewal,
2003). In sandy soil situations with very low water storage capacity fruit crops may have
preference over seasonal field crops in this system. Owing to deep rooted system, fruit crops can
utilize the moisture stored in the sub-station.
Sub-surface barrier
From the flat lands with sandy soils, a huge quantity of water and nutrients are lost due to deep
percolation.These soils therefore, become infertile and unproductive. Productivity of such soils
can be improved by placing a 2 mm thick layer of asphalt at 60 cm depth in the soil profile.
There was above five times reduction in percolation and 100% increase in water and nitrogen
retention of soil with asphalt barrier. Asphalt barrier can be rapidly and conveniently placed with
the help of AMOBAR machine. However, in absence of machine, asphalt barrier can be placed
(Saxena et al., 1998). After removing the loose sand with the help of tractor or bulldozer, this
technique can be applied over a limited area for growing nursery plants, vegetables and some
high value crops.
Soil amendments
Agricultural lands with sandy soils have poor moisture retention characteristics and low fertility
levels affect crop production. Addition of pond sendiments, which is available at local ponds,
river etc. and gets dry during summer at the rate of 75 tonnes/ha to loamy sandy soil could
increase the moisture retention characteristics, available water capacity, wind stable aggregates
and decrease the infiltration rate of the soil, can be used for better crop production (Bhan, 1997).
Similarly, sandy soils with poor organic matter status which generally get compacted and affect
the seedling emergence and crop growth can be successfully used for better crop production by
application of farm yard manure in association with urea to supply nitrogen 50% from each
source. Application of FYM with urea increases the moisture retention characteristics of the soil,
decrease the compaction level and saturated hydraulic conductivity of soil.

Stubble mulch farming

Crop residue maintained over the soil can serve as a mulch surface. Stubble mulch cover on
sandy soil reduces wind erosion, increase soil moisture storage by reduction in soil evaporation,
improve dry aggregates stability and increase crop yields (Bhan, 1997).
Wind strip cropping
Wind strip cropping proved to be useful practice in areas covered with soil, prone to wind
erosion, low rainfall and high wind regime. Erosion resistant crops like grasses are alternated
with erosion susceptible crops like pearl millet and grain legumes perpendicular to the wind
direction (Muthuraman, 1993). Strips of perennial grasses of Lasiurus sindicus and Ricinus
communis established at right angle to the direction of prevailing winds reduce the impact of
threshold velocity of wind to minimum and thus checked the erosion of wind and increase the
crop production (Bhan, 1997).
Use of mulches
Mulching is a practice to use of crop residues (Vegetative mulch), organic manures and other
litter as well as synthetic materials viz. polyethylene sheets etc. to reduce the beating action of
rain drops, runoff soil loss, evaporation and to keep down weeds and also to moderate diurnal
soil temperatures (Sharma and Singh, 2013). In regions of low rainfall, it helps conserve soil
moisture while in high rainfall areas, it reduces runoff and soil loss. Deficiency of water and high
thermal regime of soils are two most important factors which adversely affect crop production in
sandy soils. Surface mulches can be used to reduce evaporation losses, to prevent soil from
blowing and washing away. Application of grass mulches @ 6 t/ha could reduce mean maximum
soil temperature. Therefore, surface mulches can be used for favourably manipulating soil
environment for increasing crop production in sandy plains of Western Rajasthan (Bhan, 1997).
Tillage
The surface soil should be kept open for the entry of water through the soil surface. ‘In situ’
moisture conservation is the most ideal approach to sustain productivity in drylands.
Management techniques that increase infiltration and soil water storage and decrease water loss
caused by runoff, evaporation and weeds could increase quantity of water retained in soil for
subsequent use by crops (McGarry, 2000).
a. Off-season tillage : Any tillage that is carried out between two crop periods is termed as off
season tillage. This aims at keeping the soil open for more water to soak into the soil, to destroy
insect pests and to control weeds. Off season tillage, however, is not suggested for aridsoils
(Sandy soil of desert regions) as this would accelerates wind erosion.
b. Deep ploughing and chiseling : In dry land areas due to continuous shallow ploughings over
the years the sub soil below the plough sole has become compact which hinders development of
roots and percolation of water (Table 6). Deep ploughing or chiseling of field after crop harvest
after 3-4 years have been found to increase infiltration rate moisture storage and crop yields
(Bhan, 1997).
Minimum tillage: For reducing evaporation losses and consequently improving moisture
storages in the soil profile repeated ploughings after each effective rainfall in fallowlands is
regarded as useful practice. However, the result of studies conducted at Kanpur on maize-wheat
cropping system revealed that for much ploughing is beneficial neither to maize nor to wheat
crop as this practice disturbed soil structure and causes loss of soil moisture. Three ploughings
were found optimum for both maize and wheat gave higher yield of maize (1.9 and 0.33 q/ha
respectively) and wheat (2.3 and 2.2 q/ha) six and zero tillage respectively (Saxena et al., 1998).
It is, therefore, suggested that as far as possible land surface should be least disturbed during
monsoon season to reduce soil loss. Chemical weed control or discing during the last showers in
the month of September may be restored under minimum tillage practices.
Bench terracing
The system uses most of the principles of runoff farming to conserve and utilize runoff for grain
production. The bench terrace system uses level contours benches with terrace ridge to control
erosion and retain, spread and infiltrate storm runoff from cultivated contributing area that are
not treated to increase runoff (Reddy and Reddi, 1992). On slopping and undulating lands,
farming should be practiced with bench terracing. It helps in better retention of soil moisture and
nutrients and facilitates application of irrigation, if available.It is desired to develop terrace of
suitable size having 1-2% slope.
Cultural practices
The crop productivity may be increased by having proper agronomic practices under conditions
of both excess and scarcity of water. To sustain the productivity in water deficit environments, it
is important to identify the factors that improve plant survival and productivity of field crops.
a. Crops and cultivars: About 30% area in the country is drought prone and suffers from critical
water shortage at one or the other time during crop growth. From crop growth (physiology) point
of view, there may be three major patterns of drought:
● Terminal drought
● Unpredictable drought
● Unpredictable terminal drought
b. Sowing time : Kharif crops should be sown as early as possible with onset of monsoon when
at least 30 cm of soil profile is in optimum moisture conditions, when about 25-30 mm rainfall is
received within a week’s time and one of the showers is not less than 15 mmm. Early sowing
prevents the crop from attack of certain pests and diseases viz. shoot fly in hybrid sorghum,
downy mildew in hybrid maize, aphid in mustard and also facilitates early sowing of rabi crops
(Singh, 1995). Adjustment in sowing time may be required for some genotypes to avoid critical
period of moisture stress.
c. Sowing methods: Planting rainy season crops on ridges and winter crops in bottom of furrows
has significant advantage over sowing on flat beds. Sowing of rainy season crops at the edges of
ridges in ridge and furrow system ensures good crop stand due to reduced soil crusting in dry
lands. As far as possible, inter row water should be properly harvested by ridge-furrow methods
of sowing (Table 11). In water scarcity situations, water in furrows is available to root of plants.
These furrows allow the excess water to drain out of the field to be collected in ponds, tanks and
depressions for life saving irrigations and profile recharging for establishment of rabi crops, if
there is heavy downpour (Idnani and Singh, 2008). Sowing should be done with pora method or
seed drill especially during rabi. Under situations of low rainfall, row spacing should be reduced
since the plant growth under such conditions is likely to be adversely affected. Conversely
during rabi wider row spacing does well under water scarcity conditions (Bhan, 1997). Lesser
number of plants will use leftover moisture efficiently for sustained growth and production of
crops and would result in assured harvest. Strip cropping and intercropping is simple, cheap and
effective soil conservation practices.
d. Seed treatment : For proper germination and crop establishment and to safeguard against seed
borne pests, seeds must be treated with recommended fungicides and insecticides (ICAR, 1987).
Hard seed coat crops viz. castor, cotton, sunflower should be soaked in water for overnight for
better performance and grain legumes should be inoculated with appropriate strains of
Rhizobium Beijernme.
e. Seed rate and plant population: The most crop requirement of dry land crops is to attain good
germination and maintain uniform and optimum plant stand. Depending upon crop and climatic
conditions, use about 25% higher than required seed rate and excess plants should be thinned out
about 2-3 weeks after sowing. Wherever needed, gap filling should be resorted to maintain
desired plant population (Nanwal, 2001).To cope with unpredictable mid-term drought,
improved water conservation practices and reduction in plant population can mitigate drought
effects to some extent. Less plant density extracts less soil water (Singh, 1995).
f. Interculture : Earthing up in standing maize crop provides physical support to plants besides
providing aeration of roots (Sharma and Singh, 2013). Ploughing in standing crops creates mulch
and facilitates earthing up, control weeds and better retaining of rain water due to formation of
furrows.
g. Integrated nutrient management : Dryland soils are poor in N, P, S and micronutrients and
therefore, fertilizer application in drylands is highly remunerative. Water holding capacity of
coarse textured soil can be improved by addition of organic matter and pond sediments. In
dryland conditions, the response to applied nutrients is, however, directly proportional to the
amount of water available. It is, therefore, desired to adopt integrated water and fertilizer
management strategies for better root development of crops and greater moisture extraction.
Therefore, INM with particular emphasis on organic manure and biofertilizers, and inclusion of
legume crops and N-fixing forest trees in agroforestry system including alley cropping and
vegetative bunding should be practised as resources available with the farmers.
h. Weed control : Weeds reduce the productivity of crops by competing for essential resources,
by allelopathic effects, inducing attack of diseases, pests and by reducing the efficiency of farm
operations. Hence, weed control improves crop productivity and imparts more stability to crop
production. Timely weeding is not possible during rainy season due to various reasons. In years
of low rainfall, weed control assumes greater importance due to scarcity of moisture. Traditional
methods of weeding are laborious and time consuming (Nanwal, 2001). Hence, improved tillage
implements should be used where moisture at
sowing is adequate, chemical weed control along with one hoeing may provide the most desired
benefits.
i. Irrigation at critical growth stages : In each crop, there are some growth stages at which
moisture stress leads to irrevocable yield loss. These stages are known as critical growth stages
(Kramer, 1969). Under limited water supply conditions, irrigation is scheduled at moisture
sensitive stages and irrigation is skipped at non-sensitive stages. In cereals, panicle initiation and
flowering stages are moisture sensitive stages (Table 15 and 16). In pulses, flowering and pod
development stages are most important moisture sensitive stages (Gupta, 1975 and Idnani and
Singh, 2008).
Rain water harvesting
Rain water harvesting can be defined as the collection of runoff water from treated or untreated
land surface and can store it in open reservoir or in soil itself (Gupta et al., 1971). The ‘Khadin’
cultivation is the best example of runoff farming in Western Rajasthan. In this practice runoff
water is first collected in large area with a constructed bund down slope and is used to recharge
the soil profile and cultivation is done on conserved receding moisture (Singh, 1995).
Water harvesting can be done either through in situ water harvesting where water is stored in the
soil profile itself or by collection and storage of runoff in a reservoir or pond for recycling, when
needed.
a. In situ water harvesting
i. Inter-row water harvesting: Under this system, furrow of about 30-40 cm width (15 cm deep)
are alternated by ridges of 60-70 cm. The furrows and ridges are laid out by ridge marker at right
angle to the field slope. This reduces runoff and at the same time, water is concentrated in
furrows causing better water availability (Singh, 1995). Inter row method is particularly suitable
for medium to heavy textured and deep to moderately deep soils. In light soils, the crops are
planted in furrows whereas, in heavy soils, the planting may be done on ridges to eliminate the
hazard of water logging. The disadvantage with system observed is that if there is a rainfall with
high intensity soon after sowing, the loose top soil of the micro-catchment caves in as a result of
which the seeds are buried deep under the soil and crusting problem occurs resulting in poor
germination.
ii. Inter-plot water harvesting: In inter-plot water harvesting, the runoff water is contributed to
cropped plots by adjacent bare plots either on one side or both sides. These adjacent plots are
provided with certain slope to augment the runoff water towards cropped plot for increasing
available moisture in the soil profile to saturate the root zone (Sardana and Grewal, 2003). In this
system, it is necessary to ascertain the ratios between cropped area and catchment area, together
with optimum slope, depending upon soil characteristics and rainfall pattern of the region. If the
slope provided is greater, the possibility of soil erosion increases and lesser slope gives more
opportunity time for water to infiltrate in the catchment itself and thus reduces the amount of
contributed runoff to the cropped area.
iii. Pit and trench method for horticultural crops: One of the most limitations of the in situ
water arvesting approach is that a sizeable proportion of the harvested water is lost in deep
percolation to the Murrum sub-stratum due to low soil moisture storage capacity of soil profile
(Saxena et al., 1998). Most of this water is not available to the field crops having normal root
system and benefits of water harvesting are considerably reduced. Bentonite barrier technique for
supporting the initial establishment of tree (plants both silvi and horticulture) in sandy soils has
also been developed. Under this technique, pits of 40-50 cm diameter and 75 cm depth are dug
with tractor auger. About 3 kg of Bentonite is mixed in 2.5 cm soil depth at the bottom of pit.
Bentonite soil mixture 1:1 is then placed all around the sides of pits as 2 cm layer. With the help
of a hollow cylindrical frame, it has been observed that soil moisture storage in the pit is
increased by about 100% under this technique. The increased storage helps the tree seedlings
established well and reduce mortality in the initial stages (Muthuraman, 1993). As an alternative
to the Bentonite technique, 3 m circular catchment with 5% slope was found effective for tree
establishment. This provided 90 to 95% success in tree establishment of Acocia tortilis, Zuzube
and Prosopis Cineraria.
b. Desert strip water harvesting systems
Desert strip cropping uses water harvested from a collector area to help in supplying the moisture
requirements of a cultivated crop on a smaller farmed area. This system was tried in Arizona
(USA). An advantage of leaving the collector area in its natural state is that it can be used in its
traditional manner for livestock raising (Benites and Castellanous, 2003). If the crop is a failure,
only a small amount of land is lost to the livestock raising activity. If a crop is produced, the
collector area helps in providing the moisture for crop as well as feed for the livestock. This
system is more suitable for lands having regular and continuous gentle slope.
Transpiration control
Water is lost through transpiration mainly from stomatal pores on leaves. According to Kramer,
1969 transpiration can be reduced by:-
● Increasing the leaf resistance to water vapor loss by using anti-transpirants
● Reducing the net energy uptake by leaves by increasing leaf albedo
● Reducing shoot growth by growth retardants
● Increasing the air resistance to water vapor transfer with wind break/shelterbelts.
a. Antitranspirants
Antitranspirants are materials which decrease water loss from leaves by reducing the size or
number of stomatal openings leading to decreased rate of water vapour diffusion from leaf
surfaces (Reddy and Reddi, 1992).
i. Inhibiting stomatal opening : Phenylmercuric acetate, alkenyl succinic acids, atrazine
ii. Film forming : Mobileaf, hexadecanol and silicons
iii. Reflectant type : Kaolin (5%), celite
iv. Growth retardants : Reduce shoot growth and increase root growth, Cycocel (CCC). Use of
antitranspirants with different levels of nitrogen (Table 17), grain as well as straw yields of
barley significantly increased over control in different years (Agarwal and De, 1976).
b. Wind break and shelterbelts
These are effective for increasing the air resistance to water vapour transfer. Wind breaks are any
structures that obstruct wind flow and reduce wind speed while sheter-belts are rows of trees
planted for protection of crops against wind (Singh, 1995).
Conclusion
The problem of shortage of water to crops can be resolved by increasing total water supply available to
plants, increasing water use relative to other losses and efficient management of scarce water. Modest
irrigation, optimization approach, conjunctive use of rainfall with limited irrigation and use of modern
irrigation technique (drip as well as sprinkler) have exhibited the efficiency to improve transpiration and
make efficient use of other resources like seed and fertilizers. Adoption of these approaches will certainly
make the efficient use of scarce water in water deficient regions of the world. For the efficient utilization
and better cropping of sandy soils one has to overcome their physical disadvantage and to retain their
advantage, water conservation technique i.e. contour bunding, contour trenches micro-catchment, sub-
surface barrier etc. are the effective measures to increase moisture availability to the crop production and
for controlling the soil erosion, stubble mulch, wind break, tillage etc. can be successfully applied in the
sandy soil of arid region for better crop production and soil erosion control.

Lecture 13. Improved crop management practice in rainfed areas

Rainfed area is mostly found in arid, semi-arid and sub-humid regions where frequent
occurrence of drought cause partial or complete crop failure. Conventional classification of
rainfed agro-ecosystem is based on mean annual rainfall and moisture index (Table 16.1).
Drought can occur anywhere in India &pending upon rainfall distribution and its occurrence all
over the area in consecutive years may bring natural calamity. A drought is defined as a lack of
rainfall so great and long continued as to affect injuriously the plant and animal of a place
depleting water supply. The term drought refers to period of unusually low water supply.
According to the Indian Meteorological department droughts occur over an area where the
annual rainfall is less than 75 per cent of the normal. The areas receiving less than 50 per cent of
annual rainfall is called severe drought-area. Droughts may be local, confined to a single
Crops and Varieties
The duration of cropping season for a particular region is determined by rainfall pattern.
The crop grown in a rainfed region is to be tailored to the length of growing season. By and
large, the duration of rainfed crops varies from 75 to 150 days depending upon regions and type
of crops. The local genotypes of traditional crops which are cultivated because of economic and
social reasons, are of longer duration facing more chances of moisture stress. Crop substitution in
such cases are advantageous. Selecting suitable crops and varieties can increase yield of single
crop and help increase cropping intensity. There are many criteria set out for selecting rainfed
crop and variety, however, the capacity to produce a fairly good yield under limited soil moisture
condition is the most desirable. The rainfed crop should be of short duration, high yielding and
drought resistant. Selection of rainfed crop also depends on soil depth. Millets do much better
than sorghum on light and shallow soils. In the areas having compact sub-soils, root penetration
of castor or pigeon pea is better than millets or sorghum. Rainfed farmers generally prefer
cereals.
Cropping Intensity
 Depending upon the rainfall, soil depth and crop management aspects, a large portion of
rainfed areas can be put under intensive cropping using improved technology on rainwater
management, crops and agronomic practices. This could be achieved through mixed or inter-
cropping and sequential cropping systems.

Mixed or Inter-cropping
Alluvium, deep black, deep I >30 1 Double cropping red and sub-montane soils with
monitoring In mixed or inter-cropping two or more crops are sown at the same time. These crops
may differ in its duration, rooting depth, water and nutrient uptake etc. In the rainfed area,
receiving rainfall between 500 to 700 mm with a distinct period of moisture surplus, mixed or
inter-cropping should be used for improved crop production and higher returns to the farmers.
Now-a-days, more emphasis is laid on inter-cropping of legume crop with main cereal crop.
Examples are: Sorghum + pigeonpea; Sorghum + greengram; pearlmillet + pigeonpea; sorghum
+ soybean and foxtail millet + pigempea. Even in the higher rainfall (750 to 1200 mm) areas
inter-cropping facilitates growing cereal + legume or 1egur;ne + legume system of different
maturity. Important inter-cropping are cereal + legumes, and cereal + oilseed.
Sequence cropping
The rainfed area receiving more than 800 mm rainfall and high (> 200 mm) available water
holding capacity of root zone soil is suitable for sequence (double cropping. The main objective
of sequence cropping is to maxiinise the return. The sequence cropping in rainfed farming
depends on soil fertility, growing season, need of cereals, pulse and oilseed, and integrated
insect-pest management.
Fertilizer Use
Crops Rice-wheat Rice-chickpea Maize-chickpea Soybean-wheat Rice- wheat Rice-
chickpea Sorghum-chickpea Green gram-wheat Rice-chickpea Rice-linseed Maize-safflower - -
Rice-horse gram 8 Maize-mustard Maize-chickpea Maize-mustard Maize-safflower Sorghum-
safflower " Sorghum-chickpea Rainfed crops not only suffer from moisture stress but also from
nutrient deficiency. Supply of required nutrients to rainfed crops is low, hence also resulting in
very poor yield. There is a great scope of increasing rainfed crop yields by proper nutrient supply
through following ways:
1) Use of farmyard manures (FYM) and compost
 2) Use of crop residues Soybean-safflower Green gram-safflower Cowpea (fodder)-
mustard
3) Growing legume crops
4) Green manuring
5) Use of inorganic fertilizers
The rainfed farmers are using only organic manures, particularly FYM, at some places. It
is now well recognized that inorganic fertilizer use has a key role in increasing rainfed crop
yields. The consumption of fertilisers in rainfed area continues to be very low. The doze of
fertiliser supplying major nutrients, i.e. nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) in
rainfed farming depends on soil type, crop and available water. The yield response to added
nutrients, changes with a change in water supply. It is,kndwn that initial fertiliser application (to
rainfed crop increases crop vigour and more vigorously growing crops develop deeper rwtdystem
extracting more water from lower soil layers. Efficient use of fertilisers can only be made if they
are applied on soil test basis. There is widespread deficiency of N and P in rainfed areas.
Deficiency of K is limited to light textured soils. The efficiency of fertilisers application also
depends upon the method of application. Drilling of fertilizers is found better than broadcast and
foliar application especially for post-rainy season rainfed crop. In rainy season N should be
applied in 2-3 split applications. The fertilizer requirements of rainfed crops are less than that of
irrigated crops. The package of fertilizer recommendations are developed for different crops and
cropping sequences.
Tillage and Seeding Practices
Tillage and seeding practices are very important farm operations in rainfed farming.
Tillage facilitates moisture intake and its storage in the soil profiles and conditions soil for
accepting the seed into seed-bed for iq proper emergence and growth. Deep tillage (25-30 cm)
has been found highly beneficial uhder alluvials and red soils for increasing water intake and
storage; breaking hard pan and helping tap rooted crop. Medium (1 5 to 20 cm) and shallow (5-
15 cm) tillage help incorporation of FYM and phosphate fertilizers, seedbed preparation, making
dust mulching, earthing up and weed management.
 LECTURE 14. CONTINGENT CROP PLANNING FOR ABERRANT WEATHER
In dry lands, crop production depends on monsoon rainfall but the trend of monsoon is
unpredictable. Factors of unpredictable nature are the starting of monsoon, its distribution, and
closure of the rainy season. Since these factors are uncontrollable, modification needs to be made
in cropping practices to overcome the undesirable effects of rainfall vagaries. In other words the
technology of production developed for normal years and normal distribution of rainfall may not
hold good under aberrant weather conditions. A plan known as contingency plan, therefore, has
to be considered to overcome the uncertainty.
Contingency may arise in four situations
I. Timely onset of monsoon followed by prolonged dry spell.
II. Delayed onset of monsoon.
III. Early withdrawal of monsoon, and
IV. Extended monsoon.
Note: Early commencement of rain is rather rare. Under such situation normal crops can
be planted as early as 15 days without any adverse effect. The aberrations listed above have
serious impact on normal production processes and hence warrant certain contingency
measures as detailed here.
I. TIMELY ONSET OF MONSOON FOLLOWED PROLONGED DRY SPELL
There may be variation in the onset of monsoon for 5-10 days. This situation may not
warrant corrective or remedial measures but it is those spells extending over 3-4 weeks
necessitate strategy to reduce adverse effects. Effects of breaks also depend on soil storage
capacity and nature of crops cultivated. For example, a break of 15 days may not affect
adversely on soils medium to deep but a break of 4 weeks period can cause wilting of plants on
shallow light soils. Similarly, crops response also differs. Crops like pigeonpea or castor
modify their growth pattern. These produce several flushes of flowers. In other words, crops
with indeterminate growth habit are less affected and hence are desired under dryland
 conditions. Different practices of practical value are as follows.
A. Dry spell immediately after sowing,
During some of the years a dry spell may occur immediately after sowing of the crop.
This may result in poor germination due to soil crusting, withering of seedling or poor
establishment of crop stand due to inadequacy of soil moisture at sowing.
i. Resowing
It is necessary to maintain proper plant stand to ensure better yields. When there is a
severe dry spell and the population is too poor to expect any reasonable yield, resowing of the
entire field using same or new crop using subsequent rains is necessary. At Solapur, resowing
in case of pearlmillet has given a good illustration of the advantage gained by resowing (Table
1). In crops like sorghum, reseeding with the same crop is discouraged. Resowing with new
suitable crop may be considered under such condition. For instance, it is a practice in post rainy
season sorghum to reseed with wheat crop in the Vertisols of Decean Plateau.
Table 1 Performance of pearlmillet is relation to occurrence of early season drought
Date of sowing Plant population/ha Grain yield Fodder yield
Initial At harvest (q/ha) (q/ha)
28th June 1,50,00 21,900 3.4 10.9
15th August 1,50,00 1,11,806 6.2 14.1

ii. Gap filling

If the dry spell following sowing results in sub optimum population, with the subsequent
showers gap filling may be considered advantageously. If the sown crop is suitable for
transplanting, and the stage of the seedling is adequate for transplanting, transplant in the gaps
using excess seedlings growing at some places in the fields (e.g. finger millet, pearlmillet) with
subsequent rains. If the break in rains is rather long and do not permit transplanting of already
sown crop with existing seedlings due to age, other crops grown in the region can also be used
for transplanting eq. Pearlmillet, finger millet, chilli, tormato etc.
Reseeding can also be considered in the gaps using crops suited for late planting. At Dry
Faming Centre, Bangalore it is suggested to fill the fields of groundnut and finger millet with the
seeding of cowpea, horsegram, niger or sunflower in the event the gaps occupy more than 25 per
cent of the area. At Dharwad in crop production plots during one of the years, the crop stand was
not satisfactory in a groundnut + pigeonpea (3:1) intercropping. After three weeks of dry spell,
Hybrid maize was hand dabbled in the gaps using fresh showers. This practice helped to obtain
reasonable income during that year.
B. Mid or late season break
In drylands moisture is insufficient for crop production quite often. Farmers take up
sowing when sufficient moisture is there in the soil. When the soil profile is wet for 30-40 cm it
is sufficient to meet initial crop requirement of moisture. Plants tolerate stress up to 30-35 days
and later on start wilting. During this stage there is need to introduce or superimpose mid season
correction to save the standing crop otherwise whole crop may be lost. Important remedial
measures suggested are discussed here.
i. Thinning of the stands
If there is failure of rain immediately after sowing that is at about 30-35 days of sowing
or bit later is required to thin down to crop. At this stage the crop is about to enter grand growth
stage with increased leaf area which starts to deplete soil moisture at rapid rate and if there is no
replenishment of water, the crop suffers at reproductive stage resulting in poor or no harvest at
all. At this stage if thinning is attended the competition for moisture is reduced, the rate of
depletion is reduced and the remaining stand can make best use of available moisture and could
yield near normal.
Thinning, therefore, has been suggested by removing alternate lines or every line after
two to three lines in crops like pearlmillet, sorghum, groundnut etc. This can be attended by
blading out the row at inter cultivation around 30-35 days. A spacing of 90 cm thus, will be
created from 45 cm row spacing. This practice increases water availability to individual plants.
In an intercropping system the most sensitive/exhaustive crop (such as maize) may be removed.
At Solapur, thinning of populations in sunflower increased the yield over normal
population by 39 and 28 per cent due to 24 and 34 per cent reduction is population (Table 2).
Table 2 Effect of reduced plant density on production during dry spells on sunflower

Plant density/ha % Reduction Yield (q/ha) Additional grain yield (%)

74,000 Normal 7.12 -
56,000 24 9.87 39
49,000 34 9.12 28

At Bijapur, thinning of population had differential effects on yields depending on rainfall

received (Table 3). During scarcity years (1975) the thinning proved advantageous. In years of
good rainfall such a practice was not comparable with normal population.

Table 3. Influence of seasonal correction in plant populations as life saving on rainfed

rabi  sorghum yields (kg/ha)
Population corrections 1976 1975
No thinning (original) 1550 2400
Alternate plant removed 2150 NT
Alternate row removed 2070 1450
Alternate row & alternate plant in the existing row removed 1500 1370
3rd row removed 2110 2020
3rd plant removed 1260 1290
3rd row and 3rd plant in the existing row removed 1530 NT
DD 0.05 58 10
Total rainfall 224.9 4476

ii. Removal of weaklings

In most of the dryland crops there may not be uniform emergence because of soil
variation, differential depth of sowing or inadequacy of soil moisture at sowing. In depressions,
there may be quick germination and on ridges there may be slow germination. In most of the
cereals the late germinated seedling will not be vigorously growing and may not be competitive
to give any yield. In sorghum, 20-25% of weaklings are observed. These have to be removed
within 30-45 days coinciding with the flower primordial initiation stage and any correction
after this stage is not going to help even in irrigated soil. In the sorghum belt of northern
Karnataka, farmers usually remove barren plants during grain formation stage and use them to
feed the cattle. But by this time the stress occurring at panicle initiation would have already
limited the ear size, and hence the improvement could be only in the form of bold seeds.
iii. Repeated and deep inter cultivation
Early breaks in rainfall bring about soil cracking early in the season which enhances
evaporation loss of moisture through these cavities. To prevent soil cracking and to break the
capillary loss early, deep and frequent intercultivations are required. Instead of the normal 3
hoeings, six hoeing can create good dust mulch with good impact on existing crop. Generally
entire blade or slit blade hoes are employed which penetrate hardly to a depth of 5 to 7.5 cm
shovel type of interculturing hoes with iron prongs or coulters need to be used which with its
sharp cutting edge can tear off the soil and create a dust much to a depth of 10-12 cm.
iv. Mulching
If the break in monsoon is very brief, soil mulching with residues may be helpful to
extend the period of storage of water in soil profile, by way of reducing heat load on soil and by
avoiding direct contact dry desiccating wind with soil surface. In groundnut (cv. S 206)
beneficial effects of mulching after germination were comparable to the crop receiving one
protective irrigation.
Availability of mulch material may be a problem. There is also added cost due to
procurement and transportation. The locally available material like unwanted vegetation on
bunds or wastelands may be made use for this purpose. A minimum of 5 t/ha residue is required
to have any cognizable impact of mulching.
v. Striping of older leaves
Older leaves are still active and are not dead. As these are shaded they transpire more
than helping in photosynthesis. So to avoid moisture loss stripping of older leaves to direct
moisture and nutrients to actively growing parts is suggested. In sorghum, 12-15 leaves are
produced. When the plants are in flag leaf stage, strip of the bottom 3-4 leaves and use them for
mulching or for feeding the livestock. Singh (1995) opined that such a practice might control
moisture loss due to transpiration partly and not useful under prolonged condition as observed
at Solapur. In maize growing areas it is a practice to cut the top portion above the cob after
milking stage.
vi. Ratooning
In case of kharif season in all the dry zones of Karnataka intermittent dry spells ranging
from 4-6 weeks are common adversely affecting crop yields. Fingermillet is a drought resistant
crop and it rejuvenates with occurrence of rains. In case of pearlmillet when crop is exposed to
dry spells of 30-35 days during peak growth yields are drastically reduced. Under such
condition cut/harvest the crop for fodder purpose and allow the ratoon for seeding. Such a
practice should be done with the onset of rains (after experiencing drought). For quick
rejuvenation supplemental addition of N fertilizer is suggested.
vii. Application of nutrients to rejuvenate growth
 Some times to rejuvenate the growth activity immediately after receiving rains
after a long break supplementation of nutrients through urea, DAP, MgSO 4 or FeSO4 is
suggested. For instance in the northern dry zone of Karnataka, foliar spray of urea (2%) and
FeSO4 (0.25%) immediately after rains in groundnut crop is recommended for quick revival of
the plant.
viii. Life saving irrigation
If there are form ponds or seasonal streams, life saving irrigation could be given to save
the crop. Runoff is inevitable in the tropical and subtropical climates of our country. It accounts
for 10 - 40 per cent of the total rainfall. Of this runoff, at least 50 per cent could be harvested
and released for crop use.
ix. Use of Antitranspirants
As already discussed, there are chemicals, which are found to reduce water loss from
plant surface on application. Such of the chemicals may be used whenever condition warrants
crop for their use due to severe moisture less.
II. DELAYED ON SET OF MONSOON
Rains may be delayed by about 20-40 days as observed in some places. Such a late onset
1. Shortens the length of growing season.
2. Restricts the choice of crops and varieties
3. Results in low yields of kharif crops due to delayed sowing and
4. Leaves less moisture for post-rainy season crops grown in succession.
Change of crop may also be required due to pest and disease problems. For example in
Maharashtra, pearlmillet is likely to suffer from ergot (Claviceps microcephala) disease under
delayed sowing condition. The suggested measures for delayed onset of monsoon are as under.
i. Sowing under dry condition
Whenever onset of rains is delayed it is preferable to go for dry seeding with necessary
seed treatment if the seedbed is timely prepared. This practice helps to avoid further delay in
sowing that would happen once showers of high intensity are received in medium to deep soil.
Dry seeding needs to be followed based on probability of rains. Under dry seeding basal fertilizer
application may be deferred till the establishment of crop.
ii. Raising nursery and transplanting
In endemic areas community, nurseries using farm pond or tank water needs to be raised
and seedlings could be transplanted with the receipt of rains. For instance extensive surveys in
Bangalore (Hegde and Seetaram, 1985) indicated that medium to late varieties of finger millet
should be transplanted for maintaining yields levels whenever sowing is delayed. Finger millet
transplanted during the month of September at Bangalore yielded as high as 25.6 q ha -1 as against
a yield of 7.5 q ha-1 with directly sown crop. Tomar et al. (1974) also reported the advantages of
transplanted pearl millet over seeded crop under delayed sowing situation. The limitation with
this technology is that the problem of the availability of water for raising nurseries and amenable
(pearl millet, finger millet) crops.
iii. Changing plant population and planting geometry
In northern dry zone of Karnataka increased populations level has been
recommended in case of pigeon pea under delayed sowing condition to get near normal yield.
Use of one and half the recommended population has been suggested on light soils since the per
plant productivity is reduced under delayed sowing.
Another practice to remedy the yield is to use wider or skip row planting and obtain
benefit of border effects. In double cropped area, delayed onset may reduce length of growing
season and availability of moisture for the second crop grown in succession. If adjustment with
short duration kharif season crops is not possible, the regular kharif crop may be sown in wider
rows (preferably those spacings followed for the crop in succession) than normally followed and
the second crop could be planted at normal time in the space available between the rows. This
has been a practice in some parts of northern dry zone of Karnataka where the kharif groundnut
is sown in wide rows (45 cm instead of the usual 30 cm rows) and rabi sorghum is relay planted
between the rows behind the plough during October.
iv. Selection of right crops and species depending on the onset of monsoon
Certain crops are adapted to particular environmental conditions and will not do
better when sown late while some others are relatively less sensitive or insensitive to day length
variation and perform fairly well under extended period of sowing. Therefore, the first pre
requisite is to select suitable crop depending upon the onset of monsoon.
Table 4. Yield of legumes (q ha-1) as influenced by normal and late sown conditions

Sowing period
Legumes
Normal Late
Cluster bean 5.57 5.68
 Greengram 5.52 2.25
Kidney bean 7.25 3.50
Cowpea 6.34 1.63
C.D. 0.05 2.18

Table 5. Average yield (q/ha) of various crops when sown at fortnightly intervals
June II July I July II Aug. I Aug. II Sep. I
Cereals Pearlmillet 17.5 (2) 19.1 (5) 9.6 (5) 5.5 (5) 4.0 (5) 0.4 (5)
Setaria 19.9 (2) 22.7 (5) 12.2 7.4 (5) 4.4 (5) 5.8 (5)
(5)
CSH-5 17.5 (2) 23.6 (5) 15.1 5.4 (5) 2.7 (5) 3.3 (5)
(5)
Oilseed Ground nut 10.4 (2) 7.1 (5) 5.9 (5) 3.1 (5) 2.5 (5) 4.6 (5)
s Sunflower 9.3 (2) 10.3 (5) 8.9 (5) 4.5 (5) 4.2 (5) 2.7 (5)
Castor 17.0 (2) 20.1 (5) 14.8 10.2 10.8 (5) 6.0 (5)
(5) (5)
Pulses Pigeonpea 5.4 (2) 5.6 (5) 9.4 (5) 6.5 (5) 5.4 (5) 3.2 (5)
Horsegram 8.8 (2) 11.9 (2) 13.0 6.2 (2) 4.0 (2) 4.4 (2)
(5)
Green gram 6.0 (1) 2.2 (1) 1.8 (3) 0.5 (5) Failed (2) Failed
(2)

Following is the suggested crop/s at Dry farming Centre, Bijapur

Rainfall situation Suggested crops in black soil areas
Normal rains in June Hy. Pearlmillet/pigeonpea/greengram/groundnut/sctaria
/Jowar ( Kharif) or pearlmillet+pigeonpea (2:1)
Failure of rains in June but rains in July Hy. Pearlmillet/ groundnut (spreading)/ Sunflower in
medium to deep soils, sesamum/ pigeonpea/ cowpea/
horsegram on light soils
Failure of rains in July but good rains Pulses/ sunflower/ setaria/ pigeonpea/ Herbacium cotton
in August
No good rains in Kharif but in early Setaria, Safflower/ Kidney bean
September
Normal rabi rains (mid Sept.) Rabi sorghum/ safflower/ cotton/ bengalgram
Normal rains in middle October Bengalgram/ Safflower/ sorghum or sorghum+safflower
 (3:3)
All dryland research centers are equipped with alternate crop strategy. Contingent crop
plan strategy for Solapur region and Central dry region of Karnataka are presented in Table 6 and
7 respectively.

Table 6. Contingent crop planning for late onset of monsoon in Solapur region.
Rainfall situation Suggested crops Remarks
Rains during 1st Fortnight of July Pearlmillet, setaria, Sorghum (CSH 6) Adopt intercropping
(normal onset of monsoon) Groundnut (M-13), Castor (Aruna), of pearl millet +
Redgram (No. 148), Horsegram (79), Redgram (2:1)
sunflower
Rains during 2nd fortnight of July Setaria (Arjuna), Sunflower, Castor, Intercropping of
(Rains delayed by 15 days) Redgram, Horsegram (D-41-1) redgram + setaria
(2:2)
Rains during 2nd fortnight of Castor , Sunflower, Redgram Intercropping
August sunflower + Redgram
(Rains delayed by 40 days) (2:1)

Table 7. Suggested crops for Central dry zone Karnataka

Rainfall situation
Normal on set in June
Normal rains in July
Normal rains in August
Normal rains in September/ October
Suggested crop/ Cropping system
Kharif sorghum, groundnut, pearlmillet, groundnut +
redgram (4:1) China mung/ cowpea/ blackgram in double
cropped areas with rains in May
Long to medium duration finger millet (Indaf 2, Indaf 3,
Indaf 5 or PR 202) Sunflower, Castor, fingermillet nursery
Finger millet (PR 202, Indaf 5), trasnsplant finger millet/
Setaria/ Cotton sunflower (modern)
Transplant fingermillet, Setaria, Cowpea, horsegram,
safflower/ bengalgram/ linseed/ sunflower/ rabi

Table 8. Cropping schedule for late sowing

 Sl.No Rainfall situations Suggested crops
.
1 Rains during July and sowing of kharif crops by Setaria (Arjun), pigeonpea (No.
the end of July or early August 148), sunflower (ECG 9874),
castor (NPH 1), horsegram
2 Rains during August and sowing up to August end Pigeonpea, sunflower and castor,
3 Rains during late August and sowing late August Castor
early September
Certain crops species are more efficient either due to the shorter duration or capacity to
produce better yields even under relatively unfavorable moisture conditions when sown late in
the season. Therefore, varieties have to be chosen depending upon the date of occurrence of
sowing rains. (Table 9)
Table 9. Choice of crop varieties for normal and late sown conditions
Center Crop Choice of crop varieties for different sowing times
Normal Late
Akola Sorghum CSH-5/CSH 9 CSH 1
Anantpur Groundnut Kadiri 1 TMV -2 or Kadiri 3
Bangalore Fingermillet Indaf 2 or Indaf 3 PR 202 (Godavari)
Bellary Sorghum SPV 86 or CSH 7 R or CSH 8 R M 35-1
Bubaneswar Rice Ratna or Kumar BR-92
Dantiwada Sorghum CSH- 5 or CSH-6 for grain S 1049 or Malwan for fodder
Dehradun Maize G-5 or G-2 or Vikram Ageti
Hissar Greengram Varsha S-9
Hoshiarpur Wheat WL 410 C 306
Jhansi Sorghum CSH 5 CSH-6, SPV 224
Jodhpur Greengram S-8 S-9
Cowpea FS-68 K-11
Udaipur Maize Ganga 5 “Bassi selected” Satha
Sorghum CSH 5 CSH 6
Varanasi Greengram Varsha or K- 851 T.44

III. EARLY WITHDRAWAL OF MONSOON

If monsoon terminates earlier than usual it cuts the length of growing season. Normally
crops in their maturity and those growing on shallow soils suffer heavily. Sowing of rabi crops
may also gets affected. It is, therefore advisable to use short duration and early maturing
varieties to face the situation. Suggested measures to tide over the situation are as follows.
i. Reduce the plant density
Remove alternate plants in a row or blade out alternate rows or every third or forth row.
At Bangalore it is suggested to harvest crops like maize for fodder leaving the intercrop
component pigeonpea for full maturity. In northern dry region of Karnataka, it is suggested to
thin rabi sorghum or safflower based or moisture/ situation within 40 to 45 days of sowing and
in rabi. E.g. In sorghum+ chickpea and is safflower + chickpea, uprooting sorghum and
chickpea component, respectively is suggested.
There is a practice of removing top portion of maize plant (above the cobs) after milky stage in
maize is also prevalent among farmers.
ii. Dust mulching
Carry out frequent and deep inter cultivations in post-monsoon areas to create dust
mulching to burry the soil cracks to reduce the evaporation.
iii. Supplemental irrigation
If possible protective irrigation may be given. Usually protective irrigation is proposed to
be given at 55-56 days growth. Due to early withdrawal of monsoon, the same may be applied
at 35 to 40 days growth (Table 10)
Table 10. Effect of protective irrigation at 40 days stage on yield of rabi sorghum
Treatments Yield of grains Stover Grain (q) km
(q/ha) (t/ha) (q/ha)
Without irrigation 8.22 - -
2 cm irrigation in alternate furrow 12.89 4.67 2.33
4 cm irrigation in all furrows 15.29 4.67 1.84

iv. Harvest the crop early

Crops may be harvested at physiological maturity in case of kharif crops in a double
cropping system or they can also be harvested for fodder.
IV. EXTENDED MONSOON
Such aberration is rarely experienced. This is a welcome situation as double cropping
would be possible in medium to deep soils. After the harvest of kharif crop take a short duration
crop, a pulse or fodder crop. In crops like kharif sorghum ratooning can also be practiced and
additional grains could be obtained.
 Lecture 15. Watershed management
Introduction
Soil, water and vegetation are the three important natural resources. As these resources
are interdependent there is a need to have a unit of management for most effective and useful
management of these resources. In this context, watershed is an important unit for the
management of the natural resources
Concept of watershed management
A watershed is defined as any spatial area from which runoff from precipitation is
collected and drained through a common point or outlet. In other words, it is a land surface
bounded by a divide, which contributes runoff to a common point (Fig.12.1). It is defined as unit
of area, which covers all the land, which contributes runoff to a common point. It is synonymous
with a drainage basin or catchment area. The basic unit of development is a watershed, which is
a manageable hydrological unit. The watershed is also known as ridgeline in U.K.

Fig. 12.1 watershed with main and sub drains

 As the entire process of Agricultural development depends on status of water resources,
watershed with distinct hydrological boundary is considered ideal for planning developmental
programmes. It is essential to have various developmental programmes on watershed basis in
conjunction with basic soil and water conservation measures. The developmental activities need
to be taken up from ridgeline to outlet point (ridge to valley). Watershed management
programme in drylands aimed at optimizing the integrated use of land, water and vegetation in an
area for providing an answer to alleviate drought, moderate floods, prevent soil erosion, improve
water availability and increase food, fodder, fuel and fibre on sustained basis.
Watershed management implies the wise use of soil and water resources within a given
geographical area so as to enable sustainable production and to minimize floods. Watershed
management is the rational utilization of land and water resources for optimum production with
minimum hazard to natural resources. Watershed management has been taken up under different
programmes launched by Government of India .The Drought Prone Area Development
Programme (DPAP) and the Desert Development Programme (DDP) adopted watershed
development approach in 1987. The Integrated Watershed Development Project (IWDP) taken
up by the National Wasteland Development Board (NWDB) in 1989 also aimed at development
of wastelands on watershed basis. The fourth major programme based on watershed concept is
the National Watershed Development Programme for Rainfed Areas (NWDPRA) under the
ministry of Agriculture. The ministry of Rural development funds watershed development
schemes under DDP, DPAP and IWDP.
Based on the size the watersheds may be classified as
Micro watersheds: The size of the watershed range from few hectares to hundreds of hectares.
These can be designed within the crop fields.
Small watersheds: The watershed has few thousands of hectares as drainage area.
Large watersheds: The river basins are considered as large watersheds.
Principles of watershed management
- Utilizing the land based on its capability
- Protecting the fertile top soil
- Minimizing the silting up of the reservoirs and lower fertile lands
- Protecting vegetative cover throughout the year
- Insitu conservation of rain water
- Safe diversion of surface runoff to storage structures through grassed water ways
- Stabilization of gullies and construction of check dams for increasing ground water recharge.
- Increasing cropping intensity through inter and sequence cropping.
- Alternate land use systems for efficient use of marginal lands
- Water harvesting for supplemental irrigation
- Ensuring sustainability of the ecosystem
- Maximizing farm income through agricultural related activities such as dairy poultry, sheep,
and goat farming
- Improving infrastructural facilities for storage transport and agricultural marketing
- Setting up of small scale agro industries and
- Improving socio-economic status of farmers.
Objectives of watershed management
The term watershed management is synonymous with soil and water conservation with
the difference that emphasis is on flood protection and sediment control besides maximizing crop
production. The watershed aims ultimately at improving standards of living of common people in
the basin by increasing their earning capacity, by offering facilities such as electricity, drinking
water, irrigation water, freedom from fear of floods, drought etc.,
The objectives are
- Recognition of watershed as a unit for development and efficient use of land according to land
capabilities
- Flood control through small multipurpose reservoirs and other water storage structures at the
headwater of streams and problem areas.
- Adequate water supply for domestic, agricultural and industrial needs
- Reduction of organic, inorganic and soil pollution
- Efficient use of natural resources for improving agriculture and allied occupations so as to
improve socio- economic conditions of the local residents and
- Expansion of recreation facilities such as picnic and camping sites.
The objectives of watershed management programme can also be described in symbolic form by
the expression: POWER.
Here the letters symbolize the following:
P = Production of food-fodder-fuel-fruit-fibre-fish-milk combined on sustained basis
- Pollution control
- Prevention of floods
O= Over exploitation of resources to be minimized by controlling excessive biotic interferences
like over grazing
- Operational practicability of all on farm operations and follow up programmes including easy
approachability to different locations in watershed
W = Water storage at convenient locations for different purposes
- Wild animal and indigenous plant life conservation at selected places
E = Erosion control
- Ecosystem safety
- Economic stability
- Employment generation
R = Recharge of ground water
- Reduction of drought hazards
- Reduction of siltation in multipurpose reservoirs
- Recreation
Components of watershed management
The main components of watershed management programme are:
1. Conservation of water and soil resources
2. Harvesting of water like rain water harvesting
3. Management of crops
4. Practicing various land use systems
Other components
Integrated Pest and Nutrient Management
Water only cannot increase crop productivity to its potential level without other interventions. A
balanced nutrient diet along with adequate moisture availability and pest and disease free
environment can turn agricultural production several folds higher compared to unmanaged land.
Integrated nutrient management (INM) involves the integral use of organic manure, crop straw,
and other plant and tree biomass material along with little application of chemical fertilizer (both
macro and micro-nutrients). Integrated pest management (IPM) involves use of di/erent crop pest
control practices like cultural, biological and chemical methods in a combined and compatible
way to suppress pest infestations. Thus, the main goals of INM and IPM are to maintain soil
fertility, manage pest and the environment so as to balance costs, bene1ts, public health, and
environmental quality.
Crop Diversification
Crop Diversification and Intensification The crop diversi1cation refers to bringing about
a desirable change in the existing cropping patterns towards a more balanced cropping system to
reduce the risk of crop failure; and crop intensi1cation is the increasing cropping intensity and
production to meet the ever increasing demand for food in a given landscape. Watershed
management puts emphasis on crop diversi1cation and intensi1cation through the use of
advanced technologies, especially good variety of seeds, balanced fertilizer application and by
providing supplemental irrigation.
Use of Multiple Resources
Use of Multiple Resources Farmers those solely dependent on agriculture, hold high
uncertainty and risk of failure due to various extreme events, pest and disease attack, and market
shocks. Therefore, integration of agriculture (on-farm) and non-agriculture (o/-farm) activities is
required at various scales for generating consistent source of income and support for their
livelihood. For example, agriculture, livestock production and dairy farming, together can make
more resilient and sustainable system compared to adopting agriculture practice alone. Product
or by-product of one system could be utilized for other and vice-versa. In this example, biomass
production (crop straw) after crop harvesting could be utilized for livestock feeding and manure
obtained from livestock could be applied in 1eld to maintain soil fertility. It includes horticulture
plantation, aquaculture, and animal husbandry at indivisible farm, household or community
scale.
Capacity Building
 Capacity Building Watershed development requires multiple interventions that jointly
enhance the resource base and livelihoods of the rural people. This requires capacity building of
all the stakeholders from farmer to policy makers. Capacity building is a process to strengthen
the abilities of people to make e/ective and eBcient use of resources in order to achieve their own
goals on a sustained basis (Wani et al. 2008). Unawareness and ignorance of the stakeholders
about the objectives, approaches, and activities are the reasons that a/ect the performance of the
watersheds (Joshi et al. 2008). Capacity building program focuses on construction of low cost
soil and water conservation methods, production and use of bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides,
income generating activities, livestock based activities, waste land development, market linkage
for primary stakeholders. Clear understanding of strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation
mechanism and other expertise in 1eld of science and management is essential for government
oBcials and policy makers. The stakeholders should be aware about the importance of various
activities, their bene1ts in terms of economics, social and environmental factors. Therefore,
organizing various training at di/erent scales are important for watershed development.