Dryland agriculture

Growing of crops entirely under rainfed condition is known as

dryland agriculture. Depending on the amount of rainfall
received, dryland agriculture can divided into three categories:
1. Dry farming:
• Cultivation of crops in area where rainfall is less than 750mm
per annum is called dry farming.
• Prolonged dry spells during crop period are most common.
Crop failures are more frequent under dry land farming
condition.
• Dry farming regions are equivalent to arid region and
moisture conservation practices are important in this region.
2. Dryland farming
• Cultivation of crops in areas receiving rainfall above
750mm is known as dryland farming.
• Dry spells during crop period occur but crop failures are
less frequent.
• Dryland farming areas are grouped under semiarid
regions.
• Adoption of soil and moisture conservation practices and
also provision of drainage especially in black soils are
necessary.
3. Rainfed farming
• Cultivation of crops in regions receiving more than 1150
mm rainfall is known as rainfed farming.
• It is practiced in humid regions where crop failures are
rare and drainage is important problem.
 Dryland vs Rainfed farming
Constituent Dryland Rainfed farming
farming
Rainfall (mm) Less than 800 More than 800
Moisture Shortage Enough
availability
Growing Less than 200 More than 200
season (days)
Growing Arid and Humid and sub humid
regions semiarid
Cropping Single or Intercropping or double
system intercropping cropping

Constraints Wind and Water erosion

water erosion
Problems of crop production in dry farming
Dry farming areas are characterized by very low and highly
variable and uncertain yields. Crop failures are quite common.
These are mainly due to following reasons:
1. Inadequate and uneven distribution of rainfall:
The rainfall is low and highly variable which results in
uncertain crop yields. Besides its uncertainty, the distribution of
rainfall during crops period is uneven, receiving high amount of
rain when it is not needed and lack of it when crop need it.
2. Late onset of early cessation of rain:
When the monsoon sets in late, the sowing of crop are
delayed resulting in poor yields. At times, the rains may cease
very early in the season exposing the crop to drought during
flowering and maturity stages which reduces the crop yield
considerably.
3. Prolonged dry spells during the crop period: Long breaks in
the rainy season are important features of Indian monsoon.
These intervening dry spells when prolonged during crop period
reduces crop growth and yield and when unduly prolonged crop
fails.
4. Low moisture retention capacity: The crop based on red soils,
and coarse textured soils suffer due to lack of moisture whenever
prolonged dry spell occur due to their low moisture holding
capacity. Loss of rain water occurs as run of due to undulating
and sloppy land.
5. Low fertility of soils: Dryland is not only thirsty, but also
hungry. Soil fertility has to be increased but there is limited scope
for extensive use of chemical fertilizers due to lake of adequate
soil moisture.
MOISTURE STRESS
• Soil moisture is the most limiting factor in dry land farming
and dryland farming situation.
• Understanding of the physiological process that occurs
during moisture stress is necessary to ameliorate the stress
effects either by management practices or by plant
improvement.
• Stress is the result of action of external factors of an
organism. Moisture stress indicates the action lack of or
excess of water on plants.
• The term moisture stress is generally used for deficit
moisture conditions though it is applicable to excess moisture
also.
• Moisture stress is most prevalent under dryland farming
conditions.
Effects of moisture stress
It does not affect all the aspects of plant growth and
development equally. Some processes is highly susceptible
while others are far less effected. The final yield of the crop is
the integrated result of these effects of stress on water
relations, photosynthesis, respiration, nutrition and growth
and development.
Mechanisms to conserve water are:
1. Stomatal mechanism
2. Increase photosynthetic efficiency
3. Liquid deposits on leaves
4. Reduction in leaf area
5. Leaf surface
6. Effects of awns
7. Water storage in plants
Mechanism to improve water uptake
Drought avoidance is promoted by well-developed deep root
system with high efficiency to extract water from deeper layers
of the soil. This mechanism is desirable only if there is sufficient
soil moisture in deeper layers for extraction. Water uptake can
be improved by several mechanisms such as:
1. Efficient root system
2. Root -shoot ratio
3. Increase in liquid phase
4. Osmotic adjustment
Drought tolerance
• Due to different drought avoidance mechanisms, plants are
able to maintain favorable water balance and adverse effect of
reduced water potential are not felt by the plants.
• In drought tolerance, water potential of plant is reduce and it
adverse effects are felt.
• Drought tolerance can be defined as tolerance of the plants to
a level of stress at which 50% of the cells die.
• The performance of higher plants depends upon the integrated
functions of may cells which is disturbed by drop.
• Drought tolerance is either by mitigating stress or by showing
high degree of tolerance.
Resource development and utilization:
Important natural resources are rainfall, soil and plants.
Resource development and their efficient use are two important
aspects to achieve good and stable yields under dryland
condition. The rainfall received in arid and semiarid regions is
to be stored either on the soil or in the soil. Soil resources are
developed by:
1. Understanding the soil by proper grouping or classification.
2. Rectifying the defects of the soil either by leveling,
application of amendments.
3. Increasing storage capacity of the soil.
Plant resources are developed by selecting or breeding drought
resistant varieties suitable for arid and semiarid environments.
Water harvesting
• Collecting and store water for substituent use is known as
water harvesting.
• It is the method to induce, collect, store and conserve local
surface run off for agriculture in arid and semiarid regions.
• In arid regions, the collecting area or catchment area is
substantially all higher proportion compared to command
area.
• The runoff is induced in catchment area in arid lands
where as in semiarid regions, runoff is not induced in
catchment area, the excess rainfall is collected and stored.
Irrigated agriculture
It is an agriculture in which crops grown are irrigated by
different means and good yield are obtained. Irrigation is the
artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to
assist the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of
landscapes and re-vegetation of disturbed soils in dry area and
during periods of inadequate rainfall. Irrigation also has a few
other uses in crop production, which include protecting plants
against frost, suppressing weed growth in grain fields and
preventing soil consolidation. Irrigation systems are also used
for dust suppression, disposal of sewage and in mining.
Irrigation is also is often studied together with drainage, which
is the natural or artificial removal of surface and subsurface
water from a given area.
Types of irrigation:
Various types of irrigation techniques differ in how the water is
obtained from the source and it is distributed with in the field.
In general, the goal is to supply the entire field uniformly with
water, so that each plant has the amount of water it needs,
neither too much nor too little.
1. Surface irrigation: In surface irrigation systems, water moves
across the surface of agricultural land, in order to wet it and
in order to filtrate into the soil. Surface irrigation can be
subdivide into furrow, border strip or basin irrigation it is
often called flood irrigation when the irrigation results in
flooding or near flooding of the cultivated land. This has been
the most common method of irrigating agricultural land.
Where water levels from the irrigation source permit, the
levels are controlled by dikes, usually plugged by soil.
 Cont…
This is often seen in terraced rice fields, where the method is use
to flood or control the level of water in each distinct field. In
some cases, the water is pumped or lifted by human or animal
power to the level of the land. The field water efficiency of
surface irrigation is typically lower than other forms of
irrigation but has the potential for efficiencies in the range of 70
-90 % under appropriate management.

2. Localized irrigation:
It is a system where water is distributed under low pressure
through a piped network, in a pre-determined pattern and
applied as a small discharge to each plant or adjacent to it. Drip
irrigation, spray or micro sprinkler irrigation and bubbler
irrigation belong to this category of irrigation methods.
3. Subsurface textile irrigation
It is a technology designed specifically for subsurface irrigation
in all soil textures from desert soils to heavy clays. A typical
subsurface textile irrigation system has an impermeable base
layer (usually polyethylene), a drip line running along that
base, a layer of geotextile on top of the drip line and a narrow
impermeable layer on top of the geotextile. Unlike standard
drip irrigation, the spacing of emitters in the drip pipe is not
critical as the geotextile moves water along the fabric up to 2
meter from the dripper.
Water sources
Irrigation water can come from ground water (extracted from
springs or by using wells), from surface water (withdrawn
from rivers, lakes or reservoirs) or from non-conventional
sources like treated wastewater, desalinated water or drainage
water. A special form of irrigation using surface water is spate
irrigation, also called floodwater harvesting. In case of a flood
(spate), water is diverted to normally dry river beds using a
network of dams, gates and channels and spread over large
areas. The moisture stored in the soil will be used thereafter to
grow crops. Spate irrigation areas are in particular located in
semi-arid, mountainous regions. While floodwater harvesting
belongs to the accepted irrigation methods, rain water
harvesting in usually not considered as a form of irrigation.
Cont…
Rain water harvesting is the collection of runoff water from the
roofs or unused land and the concentration. About 90% of
waste water produces globally remains untreated, casing wide
spread water pollution, especially in low income countries.
Increasingly, agriculture uses untreated water as a source of
irrigation.