This document provides information on developing cropping systems for watershed areas. It discusses key characteristics of watersheds including shape, physiography, slopes, climate, vegetation, geology and soils, hydrology, and socio-economics. The principles of cropping systems in watershed areas focus on conserving resources while generating and utilizing resources. Common types of cropping systems include monocropping, multiple cropping, intercropping, and mixed cropping. Criteria for selecting crops and developing proper cropping systems in watershed areas take into account soil type, market demand, labor requirements, and growing periods.

1. PRSENTATION
ON
SUBMITTED TO…..
Dr. (Mrs.) AMBIKA TANDON
ASST. PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF AGRONOMY
INDIRA GANDHI KRISHI VISHWAVIDYALAYA, RAIPUR (CHHATTISGARH)
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE RAIPUR (CHHATTISGARH)
Development of cropping system for
watershed areas
Presented By..
PARAMJEET SINGH KANWAR
Ph.D. Scholar
DEPARTMENT OF AGRONOMY

2.  Watershed is a smallest soil hydrological unit draininge into a common outlet.
A watershed is also defined as any spatial area from which rain or irrigation
water is collected and drained through a common point.
There is no definite size for a watershed as it may way from a few hectares to
several hundred hectares.
Scientific watershed management practices help in:
• Increase of agricultural production.
• Reduce flood hazards and siltation problems.
• Pasture improvement.
Watershed management

3. The size of a watershed forms a basis for further classification into
different categories as :
 Sub watershed (100-500 sq. km)
 Milli watershed (10-100 sq. km)
 Micro watershed (1-10 sq. km)
 Mini watershed (less than 1 sq. km)
Characteristics of watershed:
1. Shape:
Watersheds differ in their shape based on morphometric parameters like
geology and structure.
The general shapes are elongated, triangular, circular etc. shapes determines
the length with ratio which affects the run off characteristics like run off time.

4. 2. Physiography:
 Type of land, its attitude and physical disposition immensely speak about a
watershed as to the climate and planning the activities in greening.
For example a hilly tract could be useful mainly for trees and plains of
populated area could be utilized only for crops.
3. Slopes:
 It controls the rain fall distribution and movement, land utilization and
watershed behaviour.
The degree of slope affects the velocity of overland flow and run off,
infiltration rate and thus soil transportation.
Cont..

5. 4. Climate:
 Meteorological parameters like precipitation, temperature, wind velocity,
humidity and evaporation decide and quantitative approach for arriving at
water availability in a watershed.
Climate is a determining factor for management etc. It determines the flow
characteristics and thus erosion behaviour.
5. Vegetation:
 Detailed information on vegetation helps in choosing type, made and manner
of greening the watershed.
Information on local species give a sure guide for selecting plants and crops.
Cont..

6. 6. Geology and Soils:
 Rocks and their structures control the formation of a watershed itself their
nature determines size, shape, physiography, drainage and ground water
conditions and soil parameters.
Rock and soils together influence water storage, movement and infiltration.
7. Hydrology :
 Availability, quantity, and distribution of surface water is basic to the final
goal of growing greenery in a watershed.
 Hydrology parameters help in quantification of water available, utilized and
additional exploited resources.
 They determine the location and design of conservation structures.
Cont..

7. 8. Socio-economics:
 Statistics on people, and their health, hygiene, wants, wishes, cattle and
farming practices and share of participation are important in managing
watershed.
9. Hydrogeology:
 The demand for ground water is ever on the increase. As such, the
appreciation of ground water resources for determining their further
availability in the context of conjunctive use of water.
Cont..

8. Cropping systems for watershed areas
What is cropping System:
It represents cropping patterns used on a farm and their interaction with farm
resources, other farm interprises and available technology which determine their make
up.
Cropping pattern means the proportion of area under various crops at a point of time
in a unit area.
It indicates the yearly sequence and spatial arrangement of crops and fallow in an area.
Crop sequence and crop rotation
are generally used synonymously.
Crop rotation refers to recurrent
succession of crops on the same piece
of land either in a year or over a
longer period of time.
Component crops are so chosen
that soil health is not impaired.

9. Principles of cropping system in watershed areas
The main principles of watershed management based on resource
conservation, resource generation and resource utilization, are:
1. Utilizing the land according to its Capability.
2. Protecting productive top soil.
3. Reducing siltation hazards in storage tanks and reservoirs and lower fertile lands.
4. Maintaining adequate vegetation cover on soil surface throughout the year.
5. In-situ conservation of rain water.
6. Safe diversion of excess water to storage points through vegetative waterways.
7. Stabilisation of gullies by providing checks at specified intervals and thereby
increasing ground water recharge.
8. Increasing cropping intensity and land equivalent ratio through intercropping and
sequence cropping.
9. Setting up of small scale agro-industries.
10. Improving the socio-economic status of the farmers.

10. 11. Safe utilization of marginal lands through alternate land use systems with
agriculture - horticulture - forestry - pasture systems with varied options and
combinations.
12. Water harvesting for supplemental and off season irrigation.
13. Maximizing agricultural productivity at convenient locations for unit area per unit
time and per unit of water.
14. Ensuring sustainability of the eco-system befitting the man-animal- plant water
complex.
15. Maximizing the combined income from the inter related and dynamic crop-
livestock- tree-labour complex over years.
16. Stabilizing total income and to cut down risks during aberrant weather situations;
and
17. Improving infrastructural facilities with regard to storage, transportation and
marketing of the agricultural produce.
Cont…

12. Management of watershed in India
It involves management of water, land, energy and greenery, integrating all the
relevant scientific approaches appropriate to socio-economic background for a
pragmatic development of a watershed.
The chief objectives of watershed management are:
• Conserving soil and water.
• Improving the ability of land to hold water.
• Rain water harvesting and recharging.
• Growing greenery trees, crops and grasses

13. Criteria for proper cropping system in watershed area
Suggested criteria for cropping system:
 It should take into account the need to maintain and improve soil fertility limit
insect and disease damage.
It should provide for an ever spread of labour requirement throughout the year, and
The main crop should be stand at the right time so that its harvest period will come
in the dry period.
 This is especially important for crop such as rice, maize, and cottan.
Criteria for proper crops:
 The selection of crops should be first of all conform with the soil type, land class and
existing crop distribution in the area,
 For optimum yields, due consideration should be given to the plant and soil relationship.
 In general, tobacco, watermelon and groundnut are recomanded for light soil, and
Rice, jute and wheat recomaneded for heavy soil.
Sugarcane is a good on medium soils with good drainage.

14. The criteria for selecting main and second crops are:
Main crop to be grown in the wet or mansoon season
It should be give a good irrigation response and consume large amount of
water.
It should be traditinal crop and preferential to the growers.
It should be take no more than five months for full growth.
It should have a stable market demand.
Second crop to be grown in the dry season
It should take a shorter growing period of not more than four months.
It should be easy to grow and consume less labour and water.
It should have a potential market demond.
It shouls be nonsensitive to photoperiodism.

15. Types of cropping systems
Depending on the resources and technology available, different types of
cropping systems are adopted on farms.
 Monocropping
 Monocropping or monoculture refers to growing of only one crop on a piece
of land year after year.
Under rainfed condition ground nut or cotton or sorghum are grown year
after year due to limitation of rainfall.
Mono cropping is practiced under normal and below normal rainfall
conditions by adopting improved methods of moisture conservation practices
and short and medium duration varieties of the crops, either in kharif or Rabi
season.
Monocropping in normal and below normal rainfall years.
Kharif crops – fallow
Fallow- rabi crops (on conserved moisture)

16. Multiple cropping
Growing two or more crops on the same piece of land in one calendar year is
known as multiple cropping.
It is the intensification of cropping in time and space dimension.
It includes double cropping, intercropping , mixed cropping and sequence
cropping.
Use of seeds of drought resistant, early, quick growing and high yielding varieties
of the crops with improved agronomic management and cropping system
depending upon the rainfall pattern bring about definite improvement in dryland
crop yields.
Pearlmillet, mungbean, black gram, cowpea and clusterbean during rainy
season.
chickpea, mustard and taramira during Rabi season were identified to be the
promising crops for the dryland areas of the region.

17. Prerequistes for multiple cropping system
A combination of fine and dry weather with sufficient irrigation and adequate
drainage is necessary for practicing multiple cropping successfully.
There are also many other factors which are prereqisites for its full
development:
Good water distribution and drainage,
Special varieties,
Heavy manuring and fretilization,
Small farms with suficient labourers.

18. Wani et, al. (2002)

19.  Inter cropping:
growing two or more crops simultaneously on the same piece of land
with a definite row arrangement or in a fixed ratio is called inter cropping.
Like: Wheat + Mustard = 9:1
Setaria + Red grame = 5:1
Here cropping intensity in space dimension is achieved,
Crops are usually grown along with those crops which have larger row inter.

20. Wani et, al. (2002)

21. Agri-Horti Cropping system:
It os one form of agroforestry in which the tree component is fruit tree. It is
also called as food-cum-fruit system in which short duration arable crops are
raised in the interspaces of fruit trees.
Some of the fruit trees that can be considered are guava, pomgranate, custerd
apple, sapota and mango.
Puless are important a arable crop for this system. However, depending on the
requirements, other like sorghum and parlmilletcan be grown in the interspaces
on fruit trees.

22. Agro-forestry cropping system:
Agro-forestry is a system where woody and non woody interacting plant
combinations are carried out for achieving certain objectives like: Conservation
of soil and water, Recycling of nutrients, Maintenance of organic matter and
some important physical properties of soil and Sustained crop productivity in
addition to the production of timber and green leaf forage for cattle.

24. 1. Contour Farming
• Contour farming implies performing all farm
operations on the contour rather than up and down
the slope.
• Contour farming is one of the easiest and most
effective and low cost method of controlling erosion
and conserving moisture.
• With contour fanning, tillage operations are
carried out along contours.
• Contour farming is effective on gentle slopes of up
to 5%.

25. 2. Strip Cropping
• Another aspect of contour farming is strip cropping or growing crops into
long narrow strips established on the contour.
• In this system, open row crops (e.g., corn) are grown in alternate strips
with close canopy crops (e.g., soybeans, alfalfa, etc.).
• The close canopy crop is often grown in a contour strip down slope from
the open row crop.

26. 3. Live beds
• One or two live beds (2-3 m wide) can be created either on contour or on
grade in the inter bund space.
• The vegetation on the beds may be according to the liking of cultivator; it
can be annual or perennial or a combination of both.

27. 4. Vegetative Hedges
• Vegetative hedges are established on the contour to create a barrier and
increase time for water to soak into the soil.
• Vegetative hedges are mostly established from bench type grasses. A widely
adapted grass for tropical eco-regions for vegetative hedges is Vetiver
(Vetiveria zizanoides) or khus grass.
• Vegetative hedges decrease runoff velocity, encourage sedimentation, and
reduce runoff and soil erosion.

28. 5. Tied ridging
• This is a modified version of ridge-furrow system where ridges are "tied" to
allow rainwater collection in the furrows and its infiltration into the root
zone.
• The system not only conserves rainwater but also substantially reduces
sediment and nutrient losses induced by runoff.

29. 6. Broad bed and furrows
• Broad bed and furrow system implies shaping alternate bed and furrows. This
technique is especially suited to black soils, where crops are sown on
preformed beds.
• The planting is done on the bed. Generally, the depth of each furrow is kept
0.15 m and the inter furrow spacing is maintained at 1.5 m.

30. 7. Dead furrows
• Dead furrows are laid across the land slope in rolling lands, to
intercept the run-off. The spacing between dead furrows varies
between 2 to 5 m or 4 to 7 crop rows. This system works well in
alfisols.

31. 8. Bunds
• These are low height earthen embankments constructed across the
slope in cultivated lands after deciding location of waterways.
i. Contour bunds are recommended in dry farming areas with light
textured soils of slopes
• up to 6 per cent and where annual rainfall does not exceed 600 mm.
They are designed
• for an expected run-off of 24 hours duration and 10 years
frequency.

32. ii. Graded bunds
• These are constructed in medium to high rainfall areas in permeable soils
(vertisols), having 2 to 6 per cent slope.
• By and large; graded bunds with 0.3 to 0.5 m2 section are constructed with
longitudinal gradient of 0.2 to 0.4 per cent depending on the site condition.

33.  Watershed is a geohydrological unit developed for better crop
and livestock management with optimum available resource
utilization.
 Considering different limitations in watershed areas different
soil conservation measurs like agronomic and engineering measurs
are taken for suitable crop production.
 Different suitable cropping practices are taken considering the
soil type, rainfall and other resource availability; like mono-
cropping, multiple cropping, strip cropping, intercropping, multi
storied cropping, alley cropping and diara cultivation etc.
according to different land capability classes.