Book of Extended summaries ISDA

International Conference on Reimagining Rainfed Agro-ecosystems: Challenges &
Opportunities during 22-24, December 2022 at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad
T2a-13R-1587
Impact of Climate Resilient Interventions in NICRA Village Rupana of
Sirsa District in Haryana
D.S. Jakhar, Vinita Rajput and Sunil Kumar
Krishi Vigyan Kendra Sirsa, Haryana- 125055
Climate change has affected crop yield, livestock production and soil health, adversely. The
rainfed agro-ecological areas of Haryana are experiencing weather extremes such as heat
wave, depleting groundwater levels, salinity, and erratic rainfall. To address these climate
constraints and with an aim to develop climate resilient sustainable ecosystem, NICRA
project was launched in 2011. For NICRA project, a village Rupana in block Nathusari
Chopta was adopted by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Sirsa as the village addressed few climatic
vulnerabilities. The village has a total cultivable area of about 780 ha out of which 70 ha area
is rainfed, 60 ha area is salt affected. The main cropping patterns of the village are Cottonwheat,
Paddy- wheat and Guar –Mustard. The soil specific and crop specific vulnerabilities
were identified and based on these constraints, suitable interventions were demonstrated to
the farmers.
Methodology
In the present study impact of two successful interventions has been described. To address
the issue of water conservation, use of Laser leveler was demonstrated to the farmers. To
address another climatic constraint of para wilt in cotton, occurring due to adverse weather
conditions in the month of September, use of Cobalt Chloride @ 10 ppm was demonstrated.
The demonstrated were conducted in the fields of selected farmers and fields were visited by
the scientists from time to time. The data of yield were collected at the harvesting stage and
BC ratio was calculated after discussion with farmer.
Results
Both the interventions were highly successful in the existing agro-climatic conditions of the
village and effectively minimized the effect of climate stress. The use of laser leveler has
resulted in increase in benefit cost (BC) ratio to the tune of 3.19 in demonstration fields with
the 8.8 percent increase in crop yield, whereas, the respective value of BC ratio in farmer
practice was 3.13. Use of laser leveler reduced the pumping hours per irrigation, and hence
saved significant amount of irrigation water in paddy cultivation. The saving of water by the
use of laser leveler has also been reported by Jat et al. (2015) and Naresh et al. (2014).
Similarly, use of cobalt chloride 0.01 percent immediately after appearance of symptoms in
cotton has effectively managed the problem of parawilt. A 20.3 percent increase in yield was
Climate resilient agriculture for risk mitigation
269 | Page