The Practitioners' Guidebook on Best Agricultural Practices for Floods and Drought

Agronomic management for OFC Minimize dry conditions by timely irrigation if supplementary irrigation is available. Except for rainfed farming situations, try to find a supplementary water source as much as possible when drought susceptible crops are grown. Except Gingelly, Finger millet, Blackgram all other OFC’s require sufficient water to give a high productivity As a means of maximizing incidental rainfall and to mitigate the effects of periodic droughts on crop growth, conservation farming practices will be very useful. This can be achieved through proper land management and preparation, mulching etc. It has been found that the use of Gliricidia (10 tons/ha) or straw (5 tons/ha) as a mulch after crop establishment reduced fertilizer requirement by 25%. Other advantages of this practice will be moisture conservation and suppression of weed emergence.

Another conservation strategy is the cultivation of annual crops between perennial leguminous tree species commonly named as Alley cropping. Soil erosion control under intensive rainy conditions, nutrient recycling, weed control, improvement in biodiversity as means of natural pest management systems are other benefits obtained in this system Organic farming approach is also useful in addressing the issues related to water shortages. Soil organic matter improves and stabilizes the soil structure so that the soils can absorb higher amounts of water without causing surface run off and improving the water retention capacity to mitigate drought conditions. Low tillage, maintenance of permanent soil cover through crops, crop residues, cover crops, crop rotation increases the soil organic mater. Mulching and zero tillage are appropriate where rainfall intensity is low.

Selection of crops should be carried out toappropriate for the particular farming environment. For example Maize is a crop having high water use efficiency and therefore it can be grown successfully under rainfed conditions. Finger millet and gingelly are comparatively drought tolerant and less water demanding crops. They are suitable for yala cultivation in paddy lands. Further, gingelly is traditionally popular as a rainfed crop for uplands. There are varieties suitable for each season with respect to some crops. For example, some varieties are not suitable for maha season even though farmers are willing to cultivate them. Therefore, selection of appropriate varieties for each cultivation season is important. For example finger millet variety Oshada is suitable for both maha and yala but other finger millet varieties are recommended for yala cultivation. These varieties can be grown in paddy lands in yala whenever water availability of rice, other field crops or vegetables are not adequate. There are nearly 185,000ha of irrigated lands in the command area of minor tanks of which 50% of minor tanks are abandoned due to lack of water for paddy cultivation.

These fallow paddy lands will provide a high potential for other field crop production (finger millet cultivation) during Yala season.

Cropping patterns and relevant management practices to maximum utilization of the available moisture have been introduced. For example, it has been identified less water demanding crops like finger millet and - 175 -