Effective Management of Natural Resources under Dry Land Farming through Watershed Basis

All India Co-ordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bangalore, conducted an experiment by adopting proven in-situ management of rainwater technologies Vetiver (khus) and Pennisitum (Nase) grass as vegetative live bunds with contour bunds. Runoff water harvesting structure such as farm ponds of 180 cubic meter capacity were dug for runoff collection from about 0.6 to 0.7 hectare area having two per cent land slope with Agro-forestry system has served as crop insurance. Lining materials were used to minimize the seepage loss from the stored water which was used for providing life saving irrigation to highly remunerative vegetable crops like chilli (sambruddi). Results of the study during the period (2000–05) clearly indicated that, the highest runoff of 93.2 mm accounting to 9.7% of the total mean annual rainfall under control plot (no inter terrace management practices) was observed. However, the runoff produced in both the inter-terrace management practices were on par with each other (65.5 to 65.9 mm). The highest mean annual soil loss of 5.66 t/ha/year under control plot and the lowest (3.151 t/ha/yr) was recorded under inter-terrace management with nase live barrier. Organic farming through application of green leaf manure (6 – 8 t/ha) enhanced the productivity of finger millet and an additional income of Rs.50,000/- with agro-forestry.