Impact of Soil and Water Conservation Practices in Central North Plateau Zone of Odisha

Abstract

The present study was undertaken in two village Tentuli and Talachampei of Keonjhar district of Odisha which come under the central north plateau zone. This zone is characterized by hilly upland area with reduced moisture holding capacity. Therefore an attempt has been made to study the various soil and water conservation practices on cost and return of crop production, to identify factors affecting yield of crops with different treatments and to study the farmer's perception of conservation agriculture production system. For this study 18 marginal and 2 small farmers were selected by employing multistage stratified random sampling method. Five different trials or treatments namely T 1 (Traditional practice), T 2 (Conventional tillage with HYV maize), T 3 (Conventional tillage with maize-cowpea intercropping), T 4 (Minimum tillage with maize as sole crop), T 5 (Minimum tillage with maize cowpea intercropping) were conducted in the field. It was observed that T 5 gave highest net return (Rs.57352.41/ha) followed by T 2 (Rs.54426.71/ha), T 3 (Rs.47376.12/ha), T 1 (Rs.46376.09/ ha). The lowest income of Rs.14359.9/ha was observed in case of T 1 . Fertilizer with minimum tillage and intercropping influenced gross income positively and significantly through soil and water conservation practice. High yielding variety and line sowing were two most influencing factors on crop production. Most profitable treatment according to farmer's perception was T 5 . Lack of irrigation facilities was important constraint in cultivation practices. Farmers should be trained for adoption of soil and water conservation practices like minimum tillage, residue mulching, inter-cropping, crop rotation, line sowing and use of HYV seeds for sustainable crop production.

Dynamic relationship of traditional soil restoration practices and climate change adaptation in semi-arid Niger

“…The result supports the establishment of the relationship between climate change and mean yield and suggests the promotion of zaï þ mulch practice in soil restoration that could be expected to affect the population of Southwest of Niger in a variety of ways. With regard to the performance of this practice, several authors, such as [29,70], found that zaï þ mulch is becoming more attractive because it minimized year to year yield variation (maximizes yield stability) under a changing climate. This could be explained by the fact that it maintains soil temperature lower.…”