Utilization of harvested rainwater for ensuring green-fodder availability in arid Rajasthan

oleh: R N KUMAWAT, M PATIDAR, B K MATHUR, P SANTRA

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Indian Council of Agricultural Research 2022-09-01

Deskripsi

The efficient use and management of natural resources are important factors for success in agricultural farming. An experiment was conducted on round the year fodder production at ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur, Rajasthan during 2017–18 to 2019–20 by harvesting rainwater from the rooftop of buildings and irrigating crops using a solar operated water pump though drips and micro-sprinklers for efficient use of harvested water. In the 3 m inter-row spaces of bajra napier hybrid (BNH) variety CO 4, three legumes Vigna unguiculata (cowpea), Clitoria ternatea (butterfly pea) and Lablab purpureus (sem) received 40 and 60 kg P/ha, grown as intercrops during the rainy (kharif) season and lucerne in succession on residual P during winter (rabi) season. Among three kharif legumes, significantly higher green (11.19 t/ha) and dry (1.60 t/ha) fodder yields were recorded with cowpea that received 60 kg P/ha. An average 243.97 t/ha green and 37.55 t/ha dry fodder yields was recorded from the system in which share of BNH in green and dry fodder yield was 67.57 and 61.81% respectively. BNH gave 164.85 and 23.21 t/ha green and dry fodder from six cuts, kharif legumes contributed 7.43 t/ha in the green fodder and 1.12 t/ha in dry fodder from a single cut and lucerne produced 71.53 t/ha green and 10.32 t/ha dry fodder from the seven cuts in a year. This system has the capacity to meet out the green fodder requirement of 4–5 adult cattle unit (ACU) round the year from the land unit of 0.1 ha.