Rain Water Management Techniques for Cotton-Based Cropping Systems

Abstract

Out of 329 M ha geographical area of the country, potential human induced land degradation is reported to be as high as 187.7M ha (Paroda, 1998). At least 57.1 % of geographical area of the country suffers from different forms of land degradation and out of it, water erosion accounts for 65% land degradation. A large variety of soils spreading all over Indian sub continent are derived from a wide range of geographical rocks and parent material, interacting with soil forming features like climate, vegetation and topography for varying time period. The capacity of soil to produce is limited by intrinsic characteristics, agro-ecological setting and land and water management practices (Bhaskar et al., 2002). Proper identification, characterization and efficient land use management could increase the productivity of degraded lands (Bhaskar et al., 2004). Cotton is one of the most important cash (commercial and fibre) crop of the country, occupying an area of 8.5 M ha with an average yield of about 440 kg lint ha- 1, which is very low as compared to world average (650 kg lint ha-1).