Augmenting crop production through rain water harvesting and recycling in red soils of Central India

A field experiment was conducted during 2002–03 to 2005–2006 in red soils to Revised: November, 2011 explore the possibilities of rain water harvesting and providing supplemental Accepted: March, 2012 irrigation to soybean, toria and Indian mustard for augmenting the growth, yield and water use efficiency under the situation where underground water availability is not there and crops are grown under rainfed conditions. Results showed that, in general, harvested rain water in farm pond was available for irrigation from middle of July to first week of November during all the years. Growth and yield attributes of soybean, toria and Indian mustard increased with supplemental irrigation which in turn increased the yield of the crops during all the years. Mean yield in terms of soybean equivalent yield increased by 40% in soybean and 181% in toria with one supplemental irrigation given at pod filling and 30 days after sowing, respectively, over control (no irrigation). Yield of Indian mustard increased by 130% with presowing irrigation, and by 412% with pre-sowing + irrigation at branching stage, over control (no irrigation). In general, the water use efficiency of all the crops increased with supplemental irrigation. The water use efficiency of soybean and toria increased by 25.6 and 72.6%with supplemental irrigation at pod filling and at 30 days after sowing, respectively, over control. The water use efficiency of Indian mustard also increased by 55.2 and 54.9% with pre-sowing and pre-sowing + irrigation at branching stage, respectively, over control. Study suggested that rain water harvesting and recycling through a farm pond can successfully be practiced on red soils for providing supplemental irrigation to some of selective crops such as soybean during dry spells in monsoon season, further, available water in the pond can also be utilized for providing pre-sowing/supplemental irrigation to post monsoon/rabi season low water requiring oil seed crops such as toria and Indian mustard for increasing the growth, yield and water use efficiency in order to augment the productivity of large rainfed areas in semi-arid regions in the country.