Soil Moisture Availability and Crop Yield as Influenced by Different Land Management Practices in the Nilgiris

A field experiment was conducted for four years from 2003 to 2006 to compare different land management practices like inward sloping bench terraces (IBT), outward sloping bench terraces (OBT), and sloping lands with supporting vegetative measures on soil and water conservation and yield of crops in a silty clay loam soil in the Nilgiris. The treatments included two per cent IBT, five and ten per cent OBT with planting of medicinal plants viz. geranium (Pelargonium graveolense), rosemary (Rosemarinus officinalis) and cineraria (Cineraria martima) on the riser, farmers’ practice (ten per cent OBT with grass on the riser) and 25 per cent sloping land with strips of geranium as vegetative barrier across the slope. Crop rotation of potato-cabbage in the first year and carrot-beans in the second year was followed and two rotations completed. The sloping plots with vegetative barrier of geranium across the slope produced significantly higher yield of carrot in both the rotations and that of potato and cabbage in the second rotation. However, the runoff and soil loss occurring from the different treatments did not vary significantly and were within the critical limits. The soil moisture content measured at 10, 20, and 30 cm depth revealed that at 20 and 30 cm depth, it was consistently higher in the sloping land with vegetative barrier of geranium across the slope. This would have resulted in the higher yield of crops in addition to the better drainage conditions in this plot.