Turning Basaltic Terrain into Model Research Farm at NIASM: Chronicle Description

Abstract

NIASM, the unique institute of ICAR, was set up on 21 February, 2009 at Baramati representing the rain shadow area after the Sahyadri Ranges frequented by famine calamities. The 56.5 ha of barren land allotted to the institute was having shallow 0.1–0.3 m murrum soil with parental basaltic rock. With the objective of developing a "Model Research Farm" for demonstrating soil and water conservation technologies and for multi-disciplinary and multi-commodity basic and strategic research on abiotic stressors, the work started with a generation of a contour map. The land has relatively steeper slopes (4%) towards east from the central peak while it is sloping gently (1.8%) towards south. Since there was hardly any soil on the surface, the land development presented a gigantic challenge. The research farm was designed for an area of 40 ha based on scientific considerations like watersheds, natural drainage pattern, topography, contour map and layout of various buildings etc. The south side farm (16 ha) is divided into six blocks which are sub-divided into 37 rectangular/trapezoidal plots including agro-met observatory and fish ponds. Since the acquired land was a rocky (basalt) terrain devoid of any vegetation, this was blasted, ripped and levelled with the help of heavy machinery support from the Irrigation Dept., Maharashtra. Locally available spent wash was applied to further pulverize the gravelly murrum. The plots were then finally leveled with front dozer tractors. Since the virgin soils were still gravelly and low in fertility (OC 0.07%; Av-P 0.5 kg/ha), heavy additions (30-40 brass/acre) of spent mushroom substrate/ FYM were made. In addition, 2.7 ha area has been filled-in by transporting black/tank silt soil. North-east side farm (8 ha; initially 4% slope) has been developed into three blocks of five terraces (width 35-38 m) while 4 ha of north-west side farm including a water balancing tank has been developed into two blocks having 7 research plots. Research activities to evolve long lasting solutions for the adverse impacts of abiotic stresses on crop production, livestock and fisheries have been initiated on south-farm. Both the northeast and north-west farms have been put under orchards to address edaphic stress and drought related issues.