About 80 per cent of the irrigation water in India is spent for paddy cultivation. After the introduction of SRI (systematic rice intensification), it has been reduced due to adoption of alternate wetting and drying. Though SRI has been adopted in vast areas in the country, proper water management is not done due to the improperly levelled land.
Other crops
Not only in case of paddy, but also other crops require properly levelled field for water efficiency during irrigation.
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When a field is levelled properly, the plant population maintenance, fertilizer use efficiency, power requirement for irrigation and many other key components involved directly on productivity and economics of cultivation are regularized.
Recent addition to modern agriculture, the laser guided land leveller gives hand for achieving 100 percent table top levelled field.
The machinery laser guided land leveller consists of a laser transmitter, receiver, control panel, automatic hydraulic unit and a bucket scraper. The laser transmitter produces a laser beam which on rotation forms a continuous plane which is received by the receiver fixed to the bucket scraper. The topography of the land is first surveyed by measuring the high and low spots. The mean of the readings gives the height at which the bucket scraper should be positioned.
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The control panel interrupts the laser beam from transmitter to receiver and operates the automatic hydraulic unit accordingly.
The tractor should then be driven in a circular motion from the high spot towards the low spot.
In the higher spot in order to keep the receiver in line with the laser beam from the transmitter, the control panel lowers the hydraulic unit and hence the soil is filled in the bucket scraper.
As the tractor moves towards the lower spots, the hydraulic unit is shifted upwards accordingly to maintain the receiver in the laser plane from the transmitter.
A minimum of 10 per cent irrigation water can be saved using this technique. Weed problem and its management becomes easier.
Time and labour requirement for crop management is reduced.
(K. Indhumathi, assistant prof & N. Tamilselvan, Head, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Papparapatty, Dharmapuri District – 636 809 Phone : 04342-245860.)