Soil and water conservation technologies for rainfed area of hilly region: A case study of Jammu District

Rainwater is the most important potential source of soil moisture and surface water for agriculture farming system particularly in rainfed area. Shiwalik foothill region of Jammu and Kashmir UT locally known as Kandi is spread mainly Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts of Jammu region. The area mainly lies on low hills which join with foot hills of Himalaya’s and extended from Jammu to Uttarakhand. Agriculture of the area is totally depends upon mercy of rain. The soil loss has affected the agricultural production and hydrological regime to large extent. Flashy flow has denuded most of the top fertile soil. Due to undulating topography and gushing speed of runoff thus area remain short of water throughout the year except during rainy season. The major land and water management problems are being faced in this area includes excessive runoff, soil erosion, land degradation and erratic distribution of rainfall with space and time results in sizable loss of soil and nutrients are primarily responsible for low productivity and poor economic status of the farmers. Agrarian community suffers from water scarcity. Keeping this in view different soil and water conservation measures like poly tank, percolation tank, recharging pit, roof water harvesting system, earthen embankment, contour bunding, continuous contour trenching, bench terracing gabion structures and efficient irrigation system like gravity feed drip irrigation system and portable sprinkler kit were constructed/installed and demonstrated at the farmer’s field at three villages namely Gargal, Kandi and Godhan of Akhnoor Tehsil of Jammu district of J&K UT under DST funded project entitled “Demonstration of technologies for improving productivity of rainfed area in Jammu district. It was found that productivity of the area raised by 80-90% due to technological interventions under the project. It was also found that water table in the open well was increased by 1-1.5 m and water retention period in the well was increased by 30-45 days due to construction of recharging pit at the upstream side of the open well. Availability of water in poly tank and roof water harvesting structures encouraged farmer for growing vegetables crops thus enhanced their income.