Abstract

                                Preserving soil moisture is an important means to maintain thenecessary water for agricultural production and also to minimize theirrigation needs of the crops. This is especially important in areaswhere rainwater for irrigation is scarce or decreasing due to climatechange or other causes. A field trial was conducted with the Ragi cropto study the increase in infiltration rate and moisture content undersubsoil and to estimate the yield and water use efficiency of the milletcrop at Agricultural Engineering College & Research Institute, Kumulur.A non-replicated trial with the treatments of deep tillage with a chiselplow, coir pith application in subsoil, random tie ridging, broad bed,and furrows, straw mulching, and vetiver bunding was conducted. Theaverage raise of moisture content, higher range (8%) was observed inthe treatment of coir pith application (T2), and followed by 6% raisein deep tillage, random tied ridging broad bed furrows and strawmulching. The maximum infiltration was found to be in deep tillage (4.7cm/hr), followed by straw mulching in the range of 4.5 cm/hr. The higheryield 1121 kg/ha and WUE 5.20 kg/ha mm was obtained in treatmentT2 (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