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Laser Leveling Holds a Lot Of Promise in Water Conservation and Saving in Dry Zones (Drought Prone Areas) of Karnataka

¹S. Upadhyaya, ²P. Balakrishnan, ²B. Pujari, ²M. Patil, ²P. Kanannavar

1. UC Davis,California,Davis,USA
2. UAS Raichur,Karnataka,India

Agricultural land leveling is of high importance in modern and intensive agriculture, especially under drought prone conditions where water resources are limited. The technology of laser leveling is very much effective in tackling these issues. A study using the technique of laser leveling was conducted in paddy farms of UAS, Raichur, Karnataka, India to find uniformity of moisture distribution and saving of water in paddy fields in comparison with the traditional leveling. The standard procedures were followed in surveying the fields and determining the moisture contents after leveling the fields and drawing contours. After rainfall of 54 mm, the moisture contents at the center of 10x10 m grids were measured at two depths of 0-30 cm and 30-60 cm. The average uniformity co-efficient of moisture content distribution in case of Laser leveled fields were found to be 93.92 per cent in 0-30 cm and 94.31 per cent in 30-60 cm soil depth. The standard deviations of 2.43 and 2.21 per cent respectively were observed in Laser leveled fields. The lower moisture content uniformity coefficients of 81.27 per cent and 81.12 per cent and higher standard deviations of 6.49 and 6.47 per cent respectively were observed in case of traditional leveling. The first irrigation required for puddling the paddy fields revealed that the time saved per hectare and the per cent quantity of water saved in laser leveled fields were 18.2 percent. This showed that in areas with limited water resources laser leveling provides uniform distribution of water and also considerable savings and better management of water resources over traditional leveling. So the laser leveling technique holds a lot of promise to preserve water, expand area under irrigation, optimize the water use, improved crop growth, reducing irrigation time and ultimately increase in crop yields for agricultural sustainability.

Keyword: Laser leveler, water conservation, Irrigation water saving, Moisture contours

S. Upadhyaya P. Balakrishnan B. Pujari M. Patil P. Kanannavar Spatial Variability in Crop, Soil and Natural Resources Poster 2012

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