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Rainfed agriculture is proving to be a significant contributor to cotton production. However, recent climate change characterizes a substantial threat to current rainfed agricultural production, and consequently to farmers’ livelihoods in semi-arid regions. Typical features of these areas are erratic rainfall to frequent dry spells that lead to frequent crop failure and lasting poverty. In-situ soil moisture conservation is an important climate resilience agricultural practice to enhance the productivity of crops in these regions including rainfed Bt cotton. It comprises agronomical land configuration techniques with several local modifications. The experiments were conducted in a field at Okkarai village (11o 22’ N latitude and 78o 53’ E longitudes), Thuraiyur Block, Tiruchirapallai District in the Northwestern Agro-climatic Zone of Tamil Nadu. It was undertaken during the Rabi season (North-East monsoon) of 2022 and 2023. The experiments were laid out in randomized block design (RBD) with 7 treatments with three replications. The treatments consist of different land configuration techniques viz., flat-bed, ridges and furrows, broad bed and furrows (BBF), raised bed, tied ridges, tied ridges (alternate rows) and tied broad beds (TBB). An analysis of pooled mean data of two years showed significant differences between the treatments. Among the land configuration techniques tested, tied ridges (alternate rows) registered the maximum soil moisture content during flowering and boll formation (90 DAS), boll development (120 DAS) and boll and fibre maturation (140 DAS) stages, and the increase was 34.4%, 31.8% and 15.74%, respectively over flat-bed method. Likewise, tied ridges (alternate rows) significantly enhanced the cotton growth characters viz., plant height (128.92 cm), leaf area index (4.52), dry matter production (5.19 t/ha), and yield attributes viz., number of squares (44.50/plant), number of bolls (43.73/plant), boll weight (4.76 g) and seed cotton yield (20.86 q/ha) and cost-benefit ratio (3.07). Tied ridges in alternative row served as low-cost micro catchment approach for trapping and holding water and its practice in semi-arid rainfed region has beneficial effects of reducing runoff and soil loss, increasing soil moisture and augment crop yield.
IMMANUEL et al. (Tue,) studied this question.