Adaptation and assessment of in-situ moisture conservation farm machinery implements to enhance crop productivity in rainfed agriculture

Introduction

The ICAR-CRIDA (Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture), Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) Ranga Reddy District, initiated a project to assess in-situ moisture conservation farm machinery in rainfed agriculture. Beginning in 2011-12, the project involved collaboration with the Joint Director of Agriculture, State Agricultural Officials and progressive farmers. The interventions were implemented in two hamlets, Sheriguda and Chenchupally of Pudur Mandal, Ranga Reddy District, which typify the district's agro-climatic and were selected to demonstrate climate-resilient technologies. In-situ moisture conservation practices are essential for sustaining crop growth and improving yields in rainfed areas. However, the adoption of such practices remains limited due to the unavailability of suitable tractor-operated implements and the inefficiency and paired row seeders, which provide opportunities for efficient rainfall capture and soil moisture retention from the onset of sowing (Behera et al., 2025) [2] .

Location of the Cluster and Cropping Pattern

The project clusters were located approximately 70-80 km from Hyderabad. Mapping of gram panchayats. Benchmark Natural Resource Management (NRM) status and participatory rural appraisal (PRA) exercises facilitated implementation with the farmers shown in Figure 1. The major crops in the Pudur Mandal in Vikarabad District include rice, jowar, maize (Kharif Season), chickpea and groundnut (Rabi season), as well as vegetables & flowers, red gram, and cotton, etc. Food crops account for about 65% and non-food crops 35% of the gross area sown. Farm mechanization proved crucial for timely operations and overcoming labour shortages in the production of these crops. 3. As the farm holdings of rainfed farmers are very small, the optimal use of these three implements need to be explored properly. 4. Few studies are available for the rainfed farming systems.

Hence, three technologies were planned to be evaluated at the field level.

Objective of research 1. Assess the efficacy of machinery:

To evaluate how effectively different in-situ moisture conservation implements, such as tractor-drawn implements, perform under specific agro-ecological conditions.

Effective use of inputs and timely execution of operations:

Improved moisture availability leads to more efficient use of fertilizers and other crop inputs. These machines enable farmers to complete field preparations accurately and on time, increasing limited soil moisture, further improving efficiency and reducing costs.

Enhance crop productivity:

To determine how the use of moisture-conserving implements impacts the growth, yield, and overall water use efficiency (WUE) of rainfed crops. 4. Measure in-situ moisture conservation: To quantify the improvements in soil moisture content and reductions in surface runoff achieved by using the implements compared to traditional practices.

Materials and Methods

To finalize the NRM activities in the cluster, the following steps were followed. Participatory rural appraisal survey, baseline survey, village transect walk and organization of village-level meetings to finalize the beneficiaries in consensus with farmers of the cluster. To impart direct benefits to the farmers, In-situ moisture conservation practices through the use of farm machinery for climate resilience enhancement were proposed and the project implementation period was 2011-16 through selected agricultural machinery.

Selected Practices and Crops

Four technologies were selected and implemented in the farmers' fields as detailed below, shown in Table 1, and a) Making Conservation Furrows -A farmer's practice b) Broad Bed and Furrow sowing, c) Plastic Mulching Sheet laying and Crop Planting with a Multifunctional in a single pass. These practices were implemented on a large scale in the cluster. Criteria considered for the adoption of farm machinery and simple device-based practices were included to empower the farmers to overcome labor shortages and higher field coverage in a shorter period of time. The benefits that accrue directly to farmers through natural resource conservation were also kept in mind. 2013) evaluated ridger planter performance in the planting of cotton and found the field efficiency of the planter was 0.89 ha/h with a field efficiency of 73.55%. CRIDA designed a paired row planter for making rainwater harvesting furrows and simultaneously sowing one row of crop on either side of the furrows. This will enhance soil moisture availability to the crop when compared with flat sowing, as is the case with farmers' practice shown in Figure 2.

Broad Bed Furrower system

The CRIDA-designed broad-bed furrow-making machine was used to make the beds. Seedling transplanting carried out using manual labor. Khambalkar et al. (2014) [4] , Asewar et al., (2017) [1] , Kumar, S. et al. (2023) [7] and Sonwani, et al., (2025) [12] carried out mechanical sowing of safflower with the Broad Bed Furrow method, which saved 58% of the operational cost over the conventional method shown in Figure 3.

Plastic Mulching Sheet Laying Machine

In the cluster of villages, most of the vegetable crops taken up in the rabi season suffer due to water stress from February to June, as shown in Figure 4 below. Therefore, farmers take up these crops to a limited extent due to a lack of sufficient irrigation water. Despite these limitations, farmers plant vegetable crops, as it is highly profitable. Soil moisture conservation techniques were more useful to facilitate such farmers. The optimum soil moisture during the growing, flowering and fruiting stages is essential for the proper uptake of nutrients and good crop yields.

Taking up these crops with plastic sheet mulching in combination with a drip system is an option to reduce the number of irrigations and increase the yields. Tuzen, et al.

(2021) [24] Kumar & Meena et al. (2020) [6] .

Results and Discussion

In the selected cluster, a mechanized and simple device-based technology was assessed in a participatory research mode with a considerable number of farmers across a substantial area during the project period, as detailed in Table 2.

Paired Row Planter

In rainfed farming, seed placement in proper conditions for a better germination rate is important for good crop establishment.

In the traditional sowing method with bullock-operated implements, it is difficult to maintain the proper seed rate. But, it is well known that seed planters help to maintain the plant-toplant spacing and row-to-row spacing as per the agronomical requirements of the crop. Moreover, the selected planter has a provision to maintain the uniform depth of sowing more or less, which helps to increase the germination rate, besides aiding in conserving moisture and draining the excess rainfall water from the crop fields Korwar et al., 2018 [5] , and Kumar, S. 2023 [7] .

The details about the performance of technologies were explained in the subsequent sections. The Paired Row Planter recorded the depth of sowing, spacing, and furrow width more uniformly when compared with farmers' practice. The result showed that sowing pigeon pea with a paired row planter saved seed by 16% and fertilizer by 45% (Table 4). Most of the farmers broadcast the seed and fertilizer in conventional practice and typically use a high seeding rate and fertilizer to compensate for the plants' loss due to the unevenness in seed placement depth, leading to wastage of seed & fertilizer.

The seed rate and basal dose of fertilizer are uniformly applied using a paired row planter, rather than bullock-operated implements and conservation furrows made during intercultural operations. Higher moisture conservation resulted in a 34.25% higher yield in paired rows compared to conventional methods shown in Table 3. Paired row planting reported lower cultivation costs despite the investment in fuel consumption. Savings that can be achieved with fertilizer, seed, and labor result in a low cultivation cost. Rao studied paired row planting practice and an increase in crop yield was found to be 34.25% with low cultivation cost and can store 250 m3 water/ha in fields, accounting for about 30 mm rainfall saving during the crop establishment to growth period. It is observed that the net return was high (Rs 41000/-) in the paired row planting method, partly due to conservation of moisture in the fields, saving of inputs (seed and fertilizer) and labor to some extent when compared to farmers' practices shown in Figure 5. The high B:C ratio of the paired row planting method was 8.0, indicating that paired row planting is beneficial compared to the farmer planting method shown in Table 4. . The cost economics of the BBF planting system of flower crop cultivation were provided in Table 5. In Table 5, it can be observed that the B:C ratio of the BBF planting system is about 3.59, which is more than that of farmer practice (1.17). In Table 6, it can be observed that the B:C ratio of the BBF planting system is about 2.42, which is more than that of farmer practice (0.61). A 70 to 80% increase in yield, quality and shelf-life of the flowers was achieved. Consistency in yield during the winter months, high demand for quality produce, fetched a good price.

In Table 7, it can be observed that the B:C ratio of the BBF planting system is about 2.79, which is more than that of farmer practice (1.14). The increased yield for the bottle gourd, bitter gourd and tube roses was indicated percentage-wise in Table 8.

Water conservation through a multipurpose plastic mulch sheet laying machine in vegetables

Using the mulch sheet laying machine, five activities can be carried out in a single pass. The advantages of polyethylene mulch sheet are increasing soil temperature, especially in winter, reducing weed problems, improving moisture conservation, increasing crop yields and making soil nutrients more efficient.  Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) flexible film is fit for mulching and images show all the benefits of mulch, such as moisture conservation and weed growth control.  Water savings were the main benefit, which varied from 20% to 75%.  The use of mulching may not increase crop yields significantly, but more land can be irrigated with available water, thereby increasing overall crop yield.  Based on typical compositions, 150 to 200-gauge PVC film can last for 2 seasons, if proper care is taken.  Black PVC film shows better control of weed growth than pure opaque white and natural opaque film. The cost economics of a mulch-laying machine were given in Table 9. In tomato, the yield increases 78.26% and in Green Chilli, the yield increases 20.00%. Hence, by using this implement, the farmers are getting the benefit, the details are shown in Table 11.

Overall, the project demonstrated that integrating mechanized in-situ moisture conservation implements can significantly enhance resource-use efficiency, crop productivity and profitability in rainfed farming systems.

References

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