Vol. 10, Special Issue 12 (2021)

Author(s):
Vivek S Devaranavadagi, Shubha S and SC Rathod

Abstract:
Increasing moisture availability to the agricultural crops and also to increase the infiltration and percolation of rain water into the root profile, the in situ moisture conservation techniques are recommended in zone-8. In a two-year farmer’s field demonstration at Vijayapur (Karnataka), moisture conservation practices (compartmental bunding, tied ridging and conventional method) were evaluated for sorghum grown under rainfed conditions. The results indicated that compartmental bunding conserved 24.27 and 47.26 per cent for 2019-20 and 18.80 and 32.02 per cent for 2020-21 more soil moisture as compared to tied ridging and farmer’s practice treatments. Compartmental bunding showed better performance in plant height, grain yield, fodder yield, gross return, net return and B:C ratio over tied ridging and farmer’s practice. Compartmental bunding practice also exhibited higher grain yield of sorghum 2894 kg ha^-1 and 2955 kg ha^-1 (for 2019-20 and 2020-21), fodder yield 5883 kg ha^-1 and 5992 kg ha^-1 (for 2019-20 and 2020-21), gross return Rs. 35870 and Rs. 36250 (for 2019-20 and 2020-21), net return Rs. 23580 and Rs. 24122 (for 2019-20 and 2020-21) and B:C ratio 2.87 and 2.96 (for 2019-20 and 2020-21).