Vol. 7, Issue 1 (2019)

Studies were carried out during the period from 2002 to 2004 at Ringnodia micro watershed to manage land, water and nutrient resources and their impact on the productivity of water and agricultural productivity of crops grown on black clays soils. At Ringnodia micro-watershed, 22 hectares Vertisol area was delineated to study the effects of soil and water conservation measures and best bet options for increasing productivity through farmers’ participatory on-farm trials. Various measures included renovation of existing water storage structures, construction of loose boulder structure, water diversion bunds, safe disposal of runoff during rainy season, planting of improved crops and cropping system, integrated nutrient management practices etc. The impact of all the considered management practices was assessed on the ground water recharge and productivity crops after 3 years of experimentation.

Studies carried out during the year 2002-03 clearly revealed the positive impact of conservation structures on runoff reduction, soil erosion control, surface water storage in storage structures, ground water recharge and productivity enhancement. Various soil and water conservation measures could be undertaken which led to appreciable reduction in soil and water loss, increased water tables in the wells and create a storage penitential to harvest 70% of the runoff. Farmers of the watershed are now convinced of using balanced nutrition particularly recommended levels of N, P2O5, and S at the rates of 30, 60 and 20 kg/ha respectively and boron (2 foliar application at 30 and 45 DAS) and zinc (at the rate of 25 kg ZnSO4 /ha, as soil application) to soybean as these resulted in tremendous improvement in productivity and net returns over their own practice of using only 50 kg/ha di-ammonium phosphate applied as mixed with soybean seeds.