Abstract

                                Preserving soil moisture is an important means to maintain the necessary water for agricultural production and also to minimize the irrigation needs of the crops. This is especially important in areas where rainwater for irrigation is scarce or decreasing due to climate change or other causes. A field trial was conducted with the Ragi crop to study the increase in infiltration rate and moisture content under subsoil and to estimate the yield and water use efficiency of the millet crop at Agricultural Engineering College & Research Institute, Kumulur.A non-replicated trial with the treatments of deep tillage with a chisel plow, coir pith application in subsoil, random tie ridging, broad bed, and furrows, straw mulching, and vetiver bunding was conducted. The average raise of moisture content, higher range (8%) was observed in the treatment of coir pith application (T2), and followed by 6% raise in deep tillage, random tied ridging broad bed furrows and straw mulching. The maximum infiltration was found to be in deep tillage (4.7 cm/hr), followed by straw mulching in the range of 4.5 cm/hr. The higher yield 1121 kg/ha and WUE 5.20 kg/ha mm was obtained in treatment T2 (coir pith application) followed by treatment T3 (random tied ridging) as 1067 kg/ha & WUE of 4.95 kg/ha mm.

Key words : Dryland technologies, Ragi crop, Coir pith applicator, Vetiver, Broad bed furrows, Random tied ridging