Natural resources like soil, water and air are the key to sustain agricultural productivity with water being most critical these days. With increasing scarcity of freshwater across the globe, emphasis is being given to improve the productivity of water used in the production systems. Efficient utilization of water resources is growing concern among the farmers, water managers and researchers. Importance is being placed on using every drop of water before it is lost back to atmosphere. Improving physical water productivity in agriculture reduces the need for additional water and land in irrigated and rain fed systems and is thus a critical response to increasing water scarcity. Further, given the huge volume of water use in agriculture, a slight increase in water productivity will lead to significant savings in water resources. Over the past few decades, number of technological innovations and approaches have been evolved to improve the productivity of agriculture with special focus on water management, integrated farming systems, soil health management, crop protection and agro forestry. This book presents the most recent ensemble of technologies for improving water productivity of irrigated and rain fed ecosystems. The strategies for efficient management of water in combination with soil health improvement, crop protection, integrated farming systems and enterprise diversification are covered in detail. The unique feature of this book is the comprehensive coverage of the latest information from leading ICAR research institutes and State Agricultural Universities of the country. It will be of significant interest to researchers, teachers, students, NGOs and all other readers working in areas water management, irrigation and development studies.
Dr. A K Singh, is a Principal Scientist and Head at ICAR-RCER, Research Centre, Ranchi. He has 24 years of research experience in horticultural crops and has developed 35 varieties/F1 hybrids of different vegetables for different parts of the country. He also contributed to standardization of package of practices for important vegetable crops cultivated in hill and plateau region of North Eastern India. He has published66 research papers in different national and international journals and has authored one book, four book chapters and 47 technical bulletins/folders. He is recipient of number of prestigious awards like Crop Research Award, Senior Scientists Gold Medal Award-2009 by Madhawi Shyam Educational Trust and International Consortium of Contemporary Biologists, Ranchi. He is recipient of the prestigious Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Award of the ICAR for his outstanding contribution in improving the livelihood of tribal farmers of the region.
Dr. Santosh S. Mali, received his MSc and PhD from Division of Agricultural Engineering, IARI, New Delhi. Presently he is working as Scientist (SWCE) at the Ranchi centre of ICAR-RCER, Patna. Before Joining ICAR he served as Scientist-B in National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee. His current research focuses onmicro-irrigation, climate change impact assessment and surface water hydrology with special emphasis on application of remote sensing and GIS in natural resource management. His areas of interest includes water footprints of agricultural commodities and groundwater flow modeling. He has successfully completed oneand is part of many externally funded projects. He is also involved in ACIAR-IWMI supported international collaborative project on improving dry season irrigation in Gangetic plains. Dr Mali is a life member of Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers and Indian Association of Soil and Water Conservationists.
Dr. Bikash Das, is presently working as Senior Scientist (Horticulture) at Ranchi centre of the ICAR-RCER, Patna. He has 12 years of research experience in the field of development of fruit based production systems. His work emphasized on efficient utilization of natural resources in the tribal dominated region of Jharkhand and West Bengal. He is known for providing the.
