Scientists on Friday apprised the farmers of various technologies developed to check soil erosion and conserve water during a meeting for showcasing soil and water conservation technologies at Central Soil and Water Conservation Research Institute (CSWCSRI) here.
Throwing light on rehabilitation of mine spoil areas in the hilly areas, Dr GP Juyal, principal scientist at Hydrology and Engineering department, soil erosion could be stopped by planting trees and also apprised the farmers of the ways of growing crops on slopes in hilly regions.
He said that farmers should use Katta-Crate technology to conserve soil and water as it is cost effective measure for rehabilitation of torrents and mine spoil areas. “One merely requires empty plastic bags and pebbles mixed with sand for developing a crate for the area, a farmer wants to conserve. It would effectively stop erosion and would also conserve water,” he said.
Dr OP Chaturvedi, a plant scientist, highlighted role of plants in soil conservation and the species of the plant and trees which could flourish well in degraded riverbed land. “Farmers having fields along the riverbed should grow Kinnow Mandarin through micro irrigation and mulching in degraded riverbed. It will be of great help to them,” Chaturvedi said.
He advised the farmers to do organic mulching around the plant to maintain the moisture required after the plantation. It would reduce requirement of irrigation. The method would also help in soil and water conservation as growing tree would stop erosion of the soil. Dr NK Sharma of Soil Science and Agronomy gave some tips to the farmers for increasing the production. “Instead of sowing wheat and mustard seeds by mixing them together, the farmers should show them in rows in proportion of 8:1 as it increases yields of both crops. A row of mustard should be grown after each eight rows of wheat,”Dr Sharma said.
Sharma also threw light on various age old methods of soil and water conservation with a modification. He said that by developing vegetative barriers, water and soil could be conserved. Farmers should try this method as it would definitely help them a lot. CSWCSRI director Dr PK Mishra, the chief guest, appealed the media to propagate the technology developed for the farmers. He said that this would help in increasing production of food-grains, which is need of the hour, to meet the rising demand of food-grains due to growth of population.
“Technologies developed by the institute need to be propagated among the farmers as these are meant for them. By using them, the farmers can grow the production of grains. It is the media that can make them aware about these methods,” Dr Mishra said, expressing hope that the media would do this favour.