Gravity Drip Irrigation and Fertigation on Crop and Water Productivity and Nutrient Use Efficiency in the Gangetic Plain of Eastern India

Water is the elixir of life, livelihood, food security and indispensable to all economic activities. This natural resource is essential for improved living standard, health, gender equity, education and alleviation of poverty. India has only 4% water resources with 2.4% land area to mitigate almost 16.3% human population and 18% livestock population in the of world. It is going to be a constraint in agriculture in near future due to the competitive demands from other sectors as a result of rapid industrialization, urbanization and social development. Agriculture is the largest user of limited water resources. The present water scarcity is largely due to widespread misuse of fresh water and lack of adequate reservoirs to harvest the excess rainfall. The Gangetic Bengal basin once described as the areas of excess water now suffers from acute dearth of water especially during the drier summer months. This challenge can be resolved through properly and wisely managed water resources with emphasis on production of more output with less water input by increasing water use efficiency. Water management is the key for maximum agricultural production through optimizing the utilization of available water resources in a systematic manner. Micro-irrigation is the best alternative option to achieve the goal. Drip-irrigation provides unique agronomic, water and energy conservation benefits that address many of the challenges facing irrigated agriculture. Similarly, plant nutrient is the major input in contributing higher crop productivity and also the limiting factor of production in irrigated agriculture. In intensive agriculture, both fertiliser and irrigation management have contributed immensely in increasing the yield and quality of crops. The method of fertiliser and irrigation application affects the efficiency. Drip-fertigation is the most efficient and less expensive agronomically sound method of fertilizer application along with irrigation water compared to conventional soil fertilization. By this method, fertilizer use efficiency is increased manifold. It has the potential to ensure that the right combination of water and nutrient is available at the active root zone, in synchrony of the plants’ total and temporal requirements and stabilizes the yield and quality of produce. Fertigation saves fertilizer nutrients as it permits applying fertilizer in small quantities at a time matching with the plants’ nutrients’ need. To address these problems, AICRP on Irrigation Water Management, BCKV center has developed many cost-effective gravity drip irrigation and fertigation technologies on different fruits, vegetables and flowers for increasing crop and water productivity and higher nutrient use efficiency with a view to transmit these adoptable technologies to the farming community. These low-cost technologies besides saving significant amount of irrigation water and nutrients could also provide higher income generation and thus accessible to the large resource poor farmers of Gangetic alluvial plain of eastern India. Ironically, there is a huge gap between technologies generation and adoption at the actual users’ end. A concerted effort involving the government, NGO and local community are therefore needed for its successful adoption on larger scale for deriving maximum benefits in terms of crop productivity and sustainability, input use efficiency and corresponding economic returns.