Rainfed Farming A Profile of Doable Technologies

Abstract

CRIDA terrace is a terrace-level soil and water conservation package essentially consisting of a small section (0.1–0.2 sqm) bund strengthened at valley lines or depressions and stabilized with vegetation of farmer’s choice. It can be aligned on field boundaries. The special features of the technology package are: (i) it can be formed by running a tractor-drawn reversible plough to cover large areas per unit time (1.0 ha/hr); the channel on the upstream side of the bund made by reversible plough is helpful to enhance the runoff handling capacity of the terrace while the terrace gets stabilized (ii) the terrace can be utilized to grow fodder grasses such as hybrid napier and guinea grass to enhance fodder availability or for raising green manure crop like Gliricidia to meet the nutrient requirement of the crop or it can even be stabilized with natural vegetation (iii) surplussing systems at individual terrace level can be accommodated either at outlets near waterways or at local valley lines depending on the level difference between them, when the bund is required to be aligned on field boundaries.