Soil Moisture Studies in the Terraced land to Explore its Utility for 'rabi' Cultivation in the Upper Catchment of Damodar Valley

Abstract

The average rainfall in the Upper Darnodar region is 1.17 metre. But there will bc years, at least once in three,in which rainfall will be below average i.e. 0.64 m to 0.76 m. or very much higher than the average i.e. 1.52 m to 1.78m and whole of this will mostly be received during June to September or at the most it may extend up to the first week of October. Winter rains are generally un- common. It was thought that the cultivation of rabi crops on 'tanr' land, even in the years of heavy rainfall, was diffcult probably because of moisture limitation. Soils on these lands are light to medium having a poor to fair water holding capacity.

Terracing is becoming a common practice of soil conservation for reducing soil erosion by disposing the run-off laterally with a nonerosive velocity. Certain types of terraces have also been found to help conservation of soil moisture. Therefore, a study was undertaken at Deochanda Experiment Station of Damodar Valley Corporation to find out the possibility of utilising this moiture so con- served for rabi crop cultivation which is not very much in vogue in the Upper Damodar Catchment.