Insitu soil moisture conservation - a review

Abstract

To increase the moisture availability to the agricultural crops, it is necessary to adopt in-situ moisture conservation techniques in addition to the large scale soil and moisture conservation and water harvesting structures in the watershed. The principle behind the recommendation of different practices is to increase the infiltration by reducing the rate of runoff, temporarily impounding the water on the surface of the soil to increase the opportunity time for infiltration and modifying the land configuration for inter plot water harvesting. Earlier efforts for moisture conservation were concentrated upon construction of various types of bunds across the land slope to control erosion and conserve soil. All the erosion control measures however, led to accumulation of water against the structures rather than its proper and uniform distribution in the inter terraced area and at times led to reduction in crop yields. To overcome these problems the insitu moisture conservation techniques are recommended. Insitu soil moisture conservation can be done through various methods i.e., agronomical method, mechanical method etc. Agronomical method includes summer ploughing, contour ploughing, mulching etc,. Mechanical methods include bunding, broad bed furrow, basin listing, tie ridging etc, In general, it could be possible to reduce soil and water losses by adopting in-situ conservation practices. It was concluded that by adopting the in-situ soil moisture conservation 38-50% moisture can be conserved, it stabilizes the crop production and it also increases crop yield and in fodder crops it can increase the fodder yield by 40%.