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Irrigation: Nurturing Crops with Controlled Water Application
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Irrigation, a cornerstone of agriculture, involves the controlled application of water to enhance crop growth. Crucial for regions facing water scarcity, irrigation ensures optimal soil moisture levels, fostering increased agricultural productivity. As a vital component of sustainable farming, it plays a pivotal role in global food security and economic development.
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Understanding Irrigation: Nourishing Crops, Sustaining Agriculture
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- Definition: The supply of water to crops at regular intervals is called irrigation.
- The time and frequency of irrigation varies from crop to crop, soil to soil and season to season.
- In summer, the frequency of watering is higher.
- Importance of Irrigation: Water is absorbed by the plant roots. Along with water, minerals and fertilisers are also absorbed.
- Plants contain nearly 90% water.
- Water is essential because germination of seeds does not take place under dry conditions.
- Nutrients dissolved in water are transported to each part of the plant.
- Water protects the crop from both frost and hot air currents.
- Sources of Irrigation: The sources of water for irrigation are— wells, tube wells, ponds, lakes, rivers, dams and canals.
- Wells: These are of two types of wells, namely, dug wells and tube wells.
- In a dug well, water is collected from water-bearing strata.
- Tube wells can tap water from the deeper strata.
- From these wells, water is lifted by pumps for irrigation.
- Canals: Canals receive water from one or more reservoirs or from rivers.
- The main canal is divided into branch canals having further distributaries to irrigate fields.
- River Lift System: In areas where canal flow is insufficient or irregular due to inadequate reservoir release, the lift system is more rational.
- Water is directly drawn from the rivers for supplementing irrigation in areas close to rivers.
- Tanks: These are small storage reservoirs, which intercept and store the run-off of smaller catchment areas.
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Types of Irrigation: Traditional Techniques and Modern Innovations
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- Traditional Methods: The various traditional ways are the moat (pulley-system), chain pump, dhekli, and rahat (Lever system).
- Pumps are commonly used for lifting water.
- Diesel, biogas, electricity and solar energy is used to run these pumps.
- Modern Methods: They help us to use water economically. The main modern methods used are as follows:
- Sprinkler System: This system is more useful on uneven land where sufficient water is not available.
- Water gets sprinkled on the crop as if it is raining.
- Sprinkler is very useful for lawns, coffee plantations and several other crops.
- Drip System: In this system, the water falls drop by drop directly near the roots.
- So it is called a drip system.
- It is the best technique for watering fruit plants, gardens and trees .
- Water is not wasted at all.
- It is a boon in regions where availability of water is poor.
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Irrigation Strategies in Cropping Patterns for Optimal Yield
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- Crop Rotation: The growing of different crops on a piece of land in a pre planned succession is known as crop rotation.
- If crop rotation is done properly then two or three crops can be grown in a year with a good harvest.
- These include different ways of growing crops so as to get the maximum benefit.
- These different ways include the following:
- Mixed Cropping: Mixed cropping is growing two or more crops simultaneously on the same piece of land.
- Inter-cropping: It involves growing two or more crops simultaneously on the same field in a definite proportion or pattern.
- The crops are selected such that their nutrient requirements are different.
- This ensures maximum utilisation of the nutrients supplied and also prevents pests and diseases from spreading to all the plants belonging to one crop in a field.
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Irrigation: Harvesting, Threshing and Winnowing
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- Harvesting: It is the process of cutting the crop after it is mature.
- Methods of Harvesting: Harvesting is done by two methods.
- First is the manual method, where a sickle is used.
- Second is the mechanical method, where a huge machine called a harvester is used.
- Threshing: Threshing is the process of loosening the grains from the chaff.
- While it can be done manually, this is carried out with the help of a machine called ‘combine’ which is in fact a harvester as well as a thresher.
- Winnowing: Winnowing is the process that separates grain seeds from the chaff using the help of the wind.
- Due to the wind, the lighter chaff flies away, and the heavier grains fall down.
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Irrigation Strategies for Optimal Crop Growth: Storage
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- Storage of the grains is an important step in agriculture.
- After harvesting, the ready grains are stored in granaries or silos.
- The grains have to be stored in a dry place that does not have a rodent or fungal infestation.
- Fumigation of storage places is carried out to make it free from microbes.
- Granaries: Granaries are the place where freshly obtained food grains are stored.
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Crop Variety Improvement for Enhanced Irrigation Efficiency
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- The crop variety improvement approach depends on finding a crop variety that can give a good yield.
- It can be done in the following ways:
- Higher Yield: To increase the productivity of the crop per acre.
- Improved Quality: The quality of crop products varies from crop to crop. e.g., protein quality is important in pulses, oil quality in oilseeds, and preserving quality in fruits and vegetables.
- Biotic and Abiotic Resistance: Crop production can go down due to biotic (diseases, insects, and nematodes) and abiotic (drought, salinity, water logging, heat, cold, and frost) stresses under different situations.
- Varieties resistant to these stresses can improve crop production.
- Change in Maturity Duration: Shorter maturity period of a crop reduces the cost of crop production and makes the variety economical.
- Uniform maturity makes the harvesting process easy and reduces losses during harvesting.
- Wider Adaptability: It allows the crops to be grown under different climatic conditions in different areas.
- Desirable Agronomic Characteristics: It increases productivity, for example, tallness and profuse branching are desirable characteristics for fodder crops, while dwarfness is desired in cereals so that less nutrients are consumed by these crops.
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Crop Protection Management Strategies in Irrigation Agriculture
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- Large Pathogens: Field crops are infested by a large number of weeds, insect pests, and diseases.
- Varied Methods: Weeds, insects, and diseases can be controlled by various methods.
- Pesticide: One method can be the use of pesticides.
- It includes herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides.
- These chemicals are sprayed on crop plants or used for treating seeds and soil.
- Excessive Utilization: However, excessive use of these chemicals creates problems, since they can be poisonous to many plant and animal species and cause environmental pollution.
- Another is mechanical removal.
- Weeds and Protection against Weeds: Weeds are undesirable plants that may grow naturally along with the crop.
- Weeds compete with the crops by absorbing all the water, nutrients, space and light.
- Following are the ways in which crops are protected against weed:
- Tilling: Tilling is a process done before sowing of crops that helps in uprooting and killing weeds.
- Manual Removal: Manual removal includes physical removal of weeds by uprooting them from the soil or chopping them off to ground level periodically.
- Weedicides: Chemicals used to kill the weeds are known as weedicides. They usually don’t damage the crop.
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