This drought year will see Karnataka State Sugarcane Growers’ Association starting a drive to promote drip irrigation among its members for water conservation and to increase crop yield.
Sugarcane is among the water-intensive crops, and in view of the prevailing water stress in Karnataka which may recur in future, the association plans to highlight the benefits of drip irrigation. This move is significant as sugarcane is being blamed for the intensity of drought ravaging parts of Maharashtra, with suggestions to ban its cultivation.
Association president Kurubur Shanthakumar told The Hindu that in this system, the quantum of water saved was enormous, which also reduces the cost of cultivation.
Among top three producers
The State is among the top three sugarcane producers in the country next only to Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, and sugarcane is cultivated on nearly 5.2 lakh hectares of land.
“This year, the yield has considerably declined owing to water stress and is expected to be around 380 lakh tonnes against nearly 480 lakh tonnes last year,” said Mr. Shanthakumar.
Uniform results
N. Nagaraj of the University of Agricultural Sciences-Bengaluru, and an expert on water management, said field trials and research had demonstrated the efficacy of drip irrigation over the conventional method of flooding the fields. “The quantum of water saved is nearly 40 per cent compared with the conventional method, and the crop yield also has increased by 50 per cent,” he said. Field trials were on in many places across the State in the last three years, and the results were uniform, Dr. Nagaraj added. Given the proven benefits in water saving and improvement in yield, the concept of drip was gaining popularity, he said. Since drip irrigation requires at least 90 cm of spacing between two rows during planting, farmers could go for inter-cropping with short-duration crop. “This will add to their income while enhancing soil fertility,” Dr. Nagaraj added.
There are more than 5 lakh sugarcane cultivators in the State and about 30 per cent of them are following the drip irrigation method. “Our mission will be to popularise drip irrigation to conserve water,” said Mr. Shanthakumar.
In drip irrigation system, the quantum of water saved is enormous, which also reduces the cost of cultivation.
Kurubur Shanthakumar,president, Karnataka State Sugarcane Growers’ Association
