13. The probable date of monsoon withdrawal in north-west India is second week  of  September  and  system  is  quite weak  right  from  the  beginning.  The weathermen do not predict good rains particularly in north-west India. The fall- out of erratic and subdued monsoon rainfall in various parts of the country on kharif  and  rabi  production  is  imminent.  The success  of Kharif,  pre-rabi  and rabi planning  will  largely  depend  on  how  best  the  following  issues  are addressed: (i) low water level in 81 major reservoirs of the country which are life line for providing drinking water, irrigation water and generating electricity, (ii) poor economic condition of the rainfed farmers and additional investment in re-sowing or re-planting and they will not be able to invest on costly  inputs for pre-rabi  and rabi  sowing,  (iii)  low  or  no  stored  water in  micro-watershed structures for providing life saving,  pre-sowing and/or supplementary irrigation for  rabi  sowing  and (iv)  probability  of  occurrence  of  rainfall  in  end  of September or first fortnight of October. Success of good harvest of kharif crop and rabi sowing particularly in rainfed regions will depend largely upon short term  measures.    Productivity  and production  are  the  most  crucial  issues  for which immediate planning is required: 

(i) Judicious use of surface and groundwater for drinking and irrigation.

(ii) Ensuring  availability  of  quality  fodder  to  animals  for  the  period  from September, 2009 to June, 2010.

(iii) Livestock management including establishment of fodder/feed depots and cattle camps especially for non-miltching  and scrub animals.

(iv) Selection of crops, cropping sequences and agronomic practices for drought affected areas.

(v) Promotion of subsidiary income and employment generating activities.

(vi) Gainful  implementation  of  NREGA,  RKVY,  NFSM,  NHM,  RGGVY, BRGF and other schemes.

(vii)Deployment of Information Technologies for gathering and disseminating information almost on real time basis.

 

13.1 Irrigation 

Drinking water should be the first and irrigating of crops second priority. The 2009 drought is widespread in the states having both  surface  and  ground water   irrigation   resources. There are some  general  issues  cutting across regionally differentiated state  specific  interventions.  Irrigation for sowing  or transplanting of the crops and saving of the already sown/transplanted crops is uppermost consideration of the contingency measures. Canal irrigation generally based  on reservoirs  like  Tehri  dam  has   many  possibilities  and flexibilities to adjust or adapt with the rainfall pattern and deficiency. Some of the irrigation schemes especially of UP, Bihar, etc. are based on run-off of the rivers  or  barrage  based systems  and  have  limited  scope  of  adaptations  to drought.

 

13.1.1 Rescheduling of the irrigation rosters: 

Elaborate rosters are generally prepared by assuming normal rainfall and availability of  discharge  in  the  canal systems.   However,  during  excessive rainfall  deficit,  rescheduling  is  called  upon  to  optimise  use  of  depleted  water supplies  and   high   demand. During   field   visits  in   the   States   and   direct interaction with the farmers, it was observed that 40-50% of the canal-tails did not  receive  water  even  for  one  irrigation  whereas  other  tails  were  lucky  in having 2-3 irrigations. Assuring at least one irrigation in each tail will make a lot  of  difference  for  saving  or  sowing  the  crops  on a very  large  area. This would require determined, motivated and skilled management by the managers and operators of the canal system.

Similarly, within  a branch,  the tail-enders did not  receive any irrigation whereas those located at the beginning of the tail enjoyed 3-4 irrigations.   This will  also  require  proper  enforcement  of  modified  operation  system  by  the Irrigation Department so that all farmers of a tail get their share equitably and this will also result in over-all higher production.

Desilting,  repairing,  renovation  and  construction  of  new  conveyance system  by  utilising  opportunities  under  NREGA, BRGF, MPLAD  funds,  etc. may be  undertaken. In  the reservoir based  systems  like that of  Bhakra, Tehri, Nagarjuna Sagar, etc. extended release of water may be re-planned both for the existing  kharif and subsequent rabi season.

 13.1.2 Ground-water utilisation

 Bore wells/dug wells energised by electricity and diesel have multiplied in recent years and following points are very important for optimising services of these heavily invested  utilities.

 i) Efficiency  of   the   electric   pumps   is   higher   than   the   diesel   pumps. However, because of the subsidised or free supply of electricity, the farmers do not  care  for  the  efficiency  of  the  motors  or  pump-sets  and  look  for cheaper options  in  the  market.  Since  supply of  power  is  getting  limited  year  by  year, farmers  should be advised to go in for more efficient but relatively expensive

 ii) Uninterrupted supply of electricity: Frequent tripping of the supply was   complained   to   almost   all   the   teams who   visited   various   States and interacted with the farmers.  Frequent tripping leads to repeated irrigation of the same spot  whereas rest of the field remained uncovered.   Farmers  were  less interested in 8 or 9 hour supply but are very particular about continuous supply without  any  break  so  that  they  are  able  to  complete  the  entire  field  with  the limited water supply.

 iii) Proper maintenance of the motors and pumping sets to reduce friction by way of greasing and other maintenance should be advised for efficient pumping.

 iv) Sharp  bends  and  excessive  height  of  the  delivery  pipes  also  yield  less water.

 v) As per the existing electricity tariffs and diesel prices operational expenditure  on  irrigation  by diesel  pumps  is  4-5  times  of  the  electric  pumps. There  are  several possibilities to derive maximum benefits by  proper   maintenance and installation of diesel pump-sets. Ultimately, diesel pumps may be phased out by linking with RGGVY (rural electrification) scheme.

 vi) In case of rice, continuous standing of water is required only in the initial 15-20 days so as to suppress growth of weeds.   However, later on, irrigating one day after  disappearance  of  water  is  the most  economical  and  efficient  way of  scheduling irrigation.

vii) Sowing of cotton, soya  bean,  maize, etc. on the ridges and furrows and letting water in alternate furrows can save 20-30% water.

 viii)Sprinklers for cereal crops like wheat and drip system for widely spaced crops sown in lines like sugarcane, cotton, maize etc. can give an efficiency of  80-90%.

 ix)Harvested rainwater stored in unlined tanks and ponds should be used for pre-sowing or first irrigation to ensure uniform germination.  Storing this water for later period will result into infiltration and evaporation losses.

 

13.2  Use of poor quality water

Rainwater is the ultimate source of surface and ground water resources. Because of deficient and scanty monsoon rainfall in most parts of the country, recharging  of  ground  water  is  not  taking  place.  Water  management  issues  of current  concern,   therefore   are:   (i)   less   exploitation   of   ground   water   for irrigation, (ii) increased concentration of        salts in the  soil  profile   and groundwater, (iii) increased concentration of specific toxic  ions like fluorides and nitrates in water and (iv) non-availability/less availability of drinking water for animals in natural storage structures such as ponds, lakes, tanks  etc.

Studies  on  groundwater  resources  indicate  that  25  to  84%  of  the  poor quality waters are also being used for cropping in several states of the country such as AP, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, MP, Rajasthan, UP etc. and most of them are currently under the threat of drought. Based upon climate, soil, water and  crop  factors,  the  Central  Soil  Salinity Research Institute,  Karnal  has standardized  water  quality  guidelines  which  must  be  kept  in  mind  while irrigating the crops using poor quality ground water in drought prone areas. In a normal  rainfall  year  salinity  developed  in  soil  due to poor quality  irrigation water gets leached or washed. However, this does not happen in a drought year and  one  has  to deal with  relatively  higher  salinity  levels.  Some  specific strategies for efficient use of poor quality water are:

(i) Mixed and/or alternate use of limited good quality and underground poor quality waters for irrigation.

(ii) Cultivation  of salt tolerant varieties  like  CSR-10,  CSR-13,  CSR-27  and CSR-30 of rice; KRL 1-4, KRL 1-9 of wheat, CS-52 of mustard, CSG (8962) of gram.

(iii) Farmers  having  residual sodium carbonate  (RSC) rich  waters should  be encouraged to use this for irrigation judiciously after amending with gypsum or as  soil  amendment.  In  order  to  facilitate  quick  utilization,  it  is recommended that gypsum should be kept in baskets (made from bamboo/mulberry sticks) and covered  with  jute  sack and  placed  under  the  source  of  irrigation  so  that improved water is used for irrigation.

 (iv) The states of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh should therefore,  need   to    take   special   extension programmes  and  supply  gypsum  freely and/or  on  soft  loan  term basis  to promote use of alkali (poor quality) waters.

 (v) In the saline areas, if there is no rainfall during August, it is proposed that farmers be advised to give pre-sowing irrigation with saline waters and go in for toria cultivation in September or mustard later on.

 (vi) The farmers having saline waters may go for Isabgol cultivation as this crop can withstand poor quality saline water irrigation up to EC 8dS/m during the rabi season and give profitable yield. Matricaria is another medicinal crop which can be cultivated even up to soil pH 9.5.

 (vii) Resorting  to  dry  sowing  of  mustard  followed  by  irrigation  with  saline water especially in light textured soils.

 (viii) There  should  be  national  level  programme  for  digging  farm  ponds  to store good quality rain water. Such farm ponds should be sealed using plastic linings or other effective method to reduce seepage losses and conservation of water  be taken up at state level. This good quality water can be used conjunctively with poor quality groundwater.

 (ix) In a sizeable area of Rajasthan, groundwater is also loaded with fluorides and nitrates.  Retro-fitting of hand pumps   have been designed by state agencies for  safe  use  of  these  waters  for  drinking. Immediate  efforts  are  required  to install these attachments in all drought prone areas having fluoride and nitrate problem for drinking purposes.

 

13.3 In-situ rain water conservation

 

Land  shaping (if    the    soil    depth   permits), contour   cultivation, field/contour  bunding,  tie  ridging  ,  digging  of trenches,  ridges  and  furrow system of sowing, raised on sunken beds are important practices for conserving and managing  rain water for realising higher  productivity.

 

13.4 Tanks and farm ponds

 

About  11-37  %  run-off  is  generated  even  by the  delayed  monsoon  and should be stored in the farm ponds or tanks. These will recharge ground water during  normal  or  excessive rainfall year. Rainater  stored  in  self  sealing  or lined ponds can be used for irrigation if there is long break in the rainfall or for pre-sowing of the rabi crops to ensure proper germination.

 

13.5 Contingent cropping

 

Selection of crops, cropping sequences and agronomic practices are very important.  Relatively  more  drought  tolerant, deep  rooted  and  short  duration crops,  varieties  and  cultivars  are  available  for  different  agro-ecological  and rainfall situations. If  the  rain  is  excessively  delayed  or  main  crop  has  failed cultivation  or  re-sowing  with  fodder  is  the best  option. Fodders  can  be harvested  at  any  stage  keeping  in  view  sowing  of  the  next  rabi  season  crop. Following Annexures discuss the details of contingency crop planning.

i) Date bound  contingency crop  plan for  rainfed  areas located in different meteorological sub-divisions is presented in Annexure 1.

ii) A  list  of  suitable  early  maturing  varieties  of  different  kharif  crops  is appended as Annexure 2.

iii) Crop-group/crop-wise   contingency   plan   for    kharif   is    discussed   in Annexure 3.

iv) Contingency plan relevant to all crops and cropping systems is covered in Annexure 4.

v) Specific contingent plan for Boro or Summer Cropping is given in Para 17.1.

 

13.6 Application of fertilizers

 

Rainfed soils are both hungry and thirsty but due to inherent risk of the un-irrigated  rainfed  crops,  the  farmers  are always reluctant  to  invest  in  basal dose of fertilizers.  Top dressing  with fertilizer is done generally after establishing good crop stand.  Some of the cotton growers are trying application of  the  fertiliser-solution  around  germinated  seedling with  the help  of sprayers by removing nozzles.  Application of fertilizers and even micro nutrients is very essential  to optimise  production  of  rain  or  irrigation  water. Intercropping  or mixed  cropping  with  legumes  or  sowing  pulses  in cropping  sequence  also improve soil fertility.  Farm yard  manure and vermi composting is specifically important since they enhance water retention of the soil. Phosphorus, sulphur and nutrient solubilising bacteria, fungi, michorhiza and poly-culture are other ways of fertilizing soil.  Risk factor can always be taken care of in the insurance of the crops. Soil Health Cards can also be used for optimised application of fertilisers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                 Ministry of Agriculture, GOI.