In the hill slopes of Paikarpur. fifteen kilometers from Bhubaneswar city, some low cost and effective land development treatments were provided to check soil erosion and to establish agro-horticultural cropping system. The tree crops and the field crops were taken as base and intercrops, respectively in between the land development treatments. Among the land development treatments the V, crescent and ring ditches along with leguminous crops viz., cowpea, ground nut and arhar could better manage and conserve the soil moisture and nutrients. Highest grain yield of 11.3, green pod yield of 28.2, 10.2 and 27.0 q ha−1 were obtained from ragi, cowpea and groundnut, respectively. The lowest soil loss of 8 t ha−1 was observed in cresent ditch, followed by 11.25 t ha−1 in ring ditch, showing their efficacy in soil conservation.
Conservation, Land development treatments, Nutrients, Soil, Water
