Deep Water Rice and Pond Based Farming System for Enhancing Water Productivity of Seasonal Flood Prone Areas

Abstract

In one hand coastal waterlogged areas remain unproductive during rainy season due to excess water. On the other hand, the winter and summer rainfall (November- May) are meager and erratic. As a result after December, the land becomes dry and evapotranspiration loss of any crops are not meet with the available moisture in the land under rainfed situation. So growing of profitable rabi crops without supplemental irrigation is not possible during winter/summer season in the region. Poor aquifer characteristics and saline ground water also limit the crop production. It is therefore, urgently needed to develop appropriate sustainable water and crop management strategies to enhance the productivity of the resource rich coastal waterlogged ecosystem. Average land holding 2 of the farmers in this region is only 0.75 ha and their economic conditions were not good. Hence to raise the income of the farming community, it looks imperative to diversify the rice-fallow cropping sequence with other farming options viz. horticulture, fisheries along with high value field crops. Water harvesting and pond based farming system provides opportunity to increase the economic yield per unit area by virtue of double cropping, diversification of crops and integration of fisheries. In this study farm pond was also designed and implemented to harvest excess water of rainy season and pond based farming system was developed to enhance the land and water productivity. After harvesting rice, second crops were grown on the same land utilizing supplemental irrigations from the harvested rainwater of the pond. Water productivity was enhanced through multiple use (fisheries + on-dyke horticulture + growing of crops during dry season with supplemental irrigations) of harvested wa