Influence of land management practices on rainwater productivity of major crops in the Nilgiris

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during 2003–06 at the Research Centre, Udhagamandalam, Tamil Nadu to compare the influence of different land management practices, like inward sloping bench terraces, outward sloping bench terraces and sloping lands with vegetative barriers on rainwater productivity (RWP) of major crops (potato, cabbages, carrot and beans) in the Nilgiris. The treatments included 2% inward sloping bench terraces, 5 and 10% outward sloping bench terraces with planting of medicinal plants on the terrace riser, farmers’ practice and 25% sloping land with strips of geranium as vegetative barrier across the slope. The crop rotation of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) cabbage (Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata L.) in the first year and carrot–beans in the second year was followed for 2 rotations. Runoff from the treatments did not vary significantly. The soil moisture in the root zone of 30 cm was found to be consistently higher in the sloping land with vegetative barrier resulting in significantly higher yield of crops. The average rainwateruse efficiency of potato, cabbage, carrot (Daucas carota L.) and beans was found to be 48.9, 60.4, 21.5 and 9.5 kg/hamm, respectively, with maximum in the sloping land (25%) with vegetative barrier. The maximum rainwater productivity (6.3 kg/cu.m) of potato obtained from the sloping land (25% ) with vegetative barrier, followed by 10% outward slope with geranium on the riser (4.8 kg/m3) and 10% outward slope with cineraria on riser (4.7 kg/m3) under normal rainfall