Book of Extended summaries ISDA

International Conference on Reimagining Rainfed Agro-ecosystems: Challenges &
Opportunities during 22-24, December 2022 at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad
solution. This customized hydroponics technology allows the cultivation of more than 10
vegetables simultaneously under a single nutrient system thereby ensuring year-round
vegetable cultivation with a higher yield. In comparison to conventional agriculture,
hydroponics technology allows vertical utilization of space, water saving to the tune of 80%,
and near-to-zero use of pesticides and weedicides, thus ensuring no residual toxicity. This
technology also makes it possible to use collected rain water as the requirement for water is
low. The entire system is low cost, low maintenance and environment friendly. The institute
has also developed a suitable nutrient composition suitable for wide range of vegetables. The
article deals with the hydroponics technology in detail vis-à-vis efforts made at DIBER for
standardization of hydroponics technology.
T1-05bO-1161
Enhancing Water Productivity in Rainfed Agriculture through in-situ and ex-situ Rain
Water Harvesting- NICRA Experiences
B.V. Asewar and M.S.Pendke
Department of Agronomy, Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani 431402
In Marathwada region, out total cultivated area of 57.94 lakh ha, 49.60 lakh ha area is rainfed.
The impact of climate change and variability in the country on agricultural production is quite
evident in the recent years. The weather aberrations like drought and floods, extreme events
like high intense rainfall, hail storms, heat wave, cold wave etc, are recurrent in most parts of
the country during the crop growing periods. The South-West monsoon account for nearly 75%
of the precipitation received in the country and exerts a strong influence on the kharif food
grain production and the economy in terms of agricultural output, farmers income and price
stability. The onset of South west monsoon, the amount of rainfall and its distribution are
crucial factors which influence the performance of agriculture. The probability of erratic
monsoon rains is about 40% which implies that 4 out of 10 years there would be an adverse
impact on the crop production. There is need to develop appropriate strategies to deal with such
eventualities. Many contingency plans are available at different scales. However, any
contingency intervention either technology related (land, water, soil, crop) or institutional and
policy based, which are implemented on a real time basis in any crop growing season
considered as “Real Time Contingency Plan” is the need of hour to stabilize crop stands,
production and income in rainfed regions. Marathwada region comprising of eight districts
(Aurangabad, Beed, Hingoli, Jalna, Latur, Nanded, Osmanabad and Parbhani) is traditionally
a drought-prone region. The region receives annual rainfall in the range of 500 to 1100 mm
and comes under assured rainfall zone (60%), moderately high rainfall zone (20%) and scarcity
zone (20%). The soils in the region are deep black and medium black. Major kharif crops of
the region are cotton, soybean, pigeon pea, sorghum, green gram black gram, and pearl millet,
whereas major rabi rainfed crops are rabi sorghum, safflower and chickpea. Rainfall is the key
Resilience through land and water management interventions, water management and governance
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