Field Design for Enhancing Water Productivity in Waterlogged Areas with Efficient Water Harvesting and Farming System

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FULL-LENGTH RESEARCH ARTICLE

Field Design for Enhancing Water Productivity in Waterlogged Areas with Efficient Water Harvesting and Farming System Sachin Kanta Rautaray1

Received: 4 October 2019 / Accepted: 31 August 2020 Ó NAAS (National Academy of Agricultural Sciences) 2020

Abstract Low productivity in waterlogged ecosystem is due to excess and deficit water stress during wet season and dry season, respectively. Good quality surface water abundantly available in the ecosystem can be harvested and used efficiently in farming system for enhancing land and water productivity. For deep waterlogged areas (ponding depth [ 1 m), improved rice–fish integrated farming system is suggested. Land modifications for this include excavating soil from a pond refuge (7% area) and two side trenches (10% area), and constructing wide dykes (23% area) on four sides of the system. Water harvesting up to potential level and growing of water loving crops (water chestnut, deep water rice) is suggested. Emphasis is given to grow dry season rice with irrigation requirement of 572.4 mm (dry season rainfall not considered) for the test soil with low seepage percolation loss (0.47 to 1.93 mm day-1 during November to April). This was due to high clay content (52 to 55%) having wet swelling property. Dry season rice occupying 6000 m2 area in 1 ha rice–fish system area may demand 3434 m3 additional water considering residual harvested water (200 mm). A supporting farm pond (45 m 9 40 m 9 3 m) located nearby may provide this demand including pisciculture and dyke crops. For moderately deep water logged area (ponding depth 0.5 to 1 m), adoption of wide spaced creeper crop, drip irrigation and early seedling raising are suggested for water saving in dry season. Water requirement for 1 ha dry season pumpkin crop is 4200 m3. Supporting farm pond (45 m 9 40 m 9 3 m) is required for meeting the irrigation demand of pumpkin, dyke crops and pisciculture in farm pond. Keywords Consumptive use  Pumpkin  Dry season rice  Farm pond  Integrated rice–fish farming  Seepage percolation

Introduction A significant area (11.65 M ha) falls under waterlogged ecosystem. The twin problems in this ecosystem include low agricultural productivity and under-utilization of excess water. The low productivity is due to excess water stress during wet season and deficit water stress in dry season. However, the water quality is mostly suitable for agriculture unlike grey water (in urban and peri-urban area), and contaminated ground water (geogenic problems & Sachin Kanta Rautaray [email protected] 1

ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751 023, India

with arsenic, fluoride and iron, and salinity). Out of 11.65 M ha of waterlogged land, about 2.16 M ha comes under canal command and the remaining area is in low lying topography (created due to rain water accumulation). Swelling of river and/or ocean causes drainage congestion and aggravates waterlogging problem. This problem is likely to increase in future as 10 to 15% more rainfall is