Land Shaping Techniques to Alleviate Salinity and Waterlogging problems of Mono-Cropped Coastal Land for Multi-Crop Cultivation

Abstract

Land shaping techniques create different types of land situations like high land/ridges, medium land and normal low land apart from farm pond / furrows for fish cultivation and rain water harvesting in the farm. Waterlogging and salinity of soil reduced in the high lands providing scope for cultivation of diverse multi-crops other than rice during kharif and other seasons. The rainwater harvested in farm pond/furrows created a source of irrigation water which is highly scarce in the region. The different land shaping techniques viz. farm pond, deep furrow & high ridge per ha, and shallow furrow & medium ridge could harvest 4700, 2250 and 1125 cu.m. of rain water respectively in monsoon season. The land shaping techniques also provided a scope for more profitable integrated cultivation of crop-fish, paddy-cum-fish and crop and fish separately along with vegetable, fruits and other high value crops. A cropping schedule for multi-crop cultivation throughout the year for more farm income and productivity in mono cropped salt affected low-lying coastal land has been suggested.