Best Management Practices

1
Best Management Practices
Sustainable Watershed Management in Developing
Countries
2
Broad Bed and Furrow System

• Broad Bed and Furrow System (BBF) is a raised
  land configuration for farming
• The raised bed portion conserves moisture and
  ensures soil stability
• The shallow furrow provides space for surface
  drainage to promote aeration in the seed and root
  zone and prevents water-logging of crops on the
  bed
• Used to protect soil from
• erosion and to provide
• control at the place where
• the rain falls

3
Tropicultor

• Multipurpose, flexible, economical, and efficient
  bullock-drawn machine for all agricultural
  applications including BBF
• Ensures faster operations and optimizes returns
  from cultivation
• Saves labor costs by 40

4
Contour Planting

• Involves planting trees in a level line across a
  slope
• Prevents erosion, retains soil, and maintains
  soil fertility
• Encourages farmers to
• plow across the slope
• instead of up and down,
• reducing erosion

5
Field Bunding

• Bunds are built along field boundaries to contain
  water and topsoil
• Dependent on efficient labor organization
• Average farm of 2 ha generates an annual income
  of 10,000-15,000 Rs field bunding can
  increase this by 60 to 16,000-24,000 Rs

Source http//images.google.com/imgres?imgurlhtt
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6
Gliricidia

• Leguminous tree mainly used for
• Hedges
• Mulch
• Green manure
• Adds plant nutrients and organic
• matter to soil and increases crop
• productivity on infertile and degraded
• soils while acting as a wind barrier
• Reduces environmental risks associated with
  chemical fertilizers, which are expensive and
  harmful to the environment

7
Vermicomposting

• An environmentally friendly, simple,
  cost-effective technology to convert farm
  residues into valuable compost in 60 days
• Completed by women self-help groups
• Compost is sold in nearby
• cities to generate income

8
Nutrient Management

• All the involved farms involved
• in an ICRISAT study were
• deficient in N, 37-40 were
• deficient in P, and 80-90
• were deficient in S, B and Zn
• Nutrients were applied through
• biofertilizers, farmyard manure,
• green manures from Gliricidia,
• and chemical fertilizers
• Yields increased by 50-120
• due to nutrient amendments

9
Integrated Pest Management

• Adopted to optimize crop productivity with
  integrated soil, water, crop, and nutrient
  management
• Crop surveys were carried out to determine plant
  protection practices within the village
• Surveys indicated farmers use chemical pesticides
  against insect pests and Helicoverpa, which is
  the key pest on a number of crops
• Goal is to coordinate use of environmental
  information to design and implement pest control
  measures that are economically, environmentally
  and socially sound

10
Grassed Waterways

• Natural or constructed channels established for
  transport of concentrated flow at safe velocities
  using adequate vegetation Green and Haney
• Broad and shallow to move surface water across
  farmland without
• causing soil erosion
• Used as outlets to prevent
• rill and gully formation

Source http//www.sera17.ext.vt.edu/Documents/BMP
_Grassed_Waterways.pdf
11
Gully Control

• Small gullies
• Filling and shaping with a spade
• or plow
• Prevent enlargement by filling with earth or
  stones
• Large gullies
• Vegetation densely planted seedlings provide
  resistance to flow
• Stone or wood structures
• Act as a threshold and prevent
• erosion
• Choice depends on conditions
• and availability of materials

12
Check Dams

• Dam constructed in a gully
• to decrease the flow
• velocity, minimize channel
• scour, and promote deposition
• of sediment
• Two main types
• Non-porous must be
• anchored to gully bank
• Porous easier to design
• effectively

13
Mini-percolation Pits

• Control gully erosion and recharge groundwater
• Small, low cost and simple
• Constructed in a series along a gully,
  benefitting many farmers across the watershed

14
Gabions

• Pre-fabricated wire cages filled with loose rock
• Individual cages placed beside and onto each
  other to obtain the dam shape
• Aesthetically pleasing,
• but more costly than
• alternative structures

15
Sources

• Gully Control in SAT Watersheds (global theme
  reports)
• Unlocking the potential of rainfed agriculture
  (flyers and brochures)
• Community-based watershed development in
  Rajasthan, India ftp//ftp.fao.org/sd/sda/sdar/sa
  rd/watershed_development-india.pdf
• Grassed Waterways http//www.sera17.ext.vt.edu/
  Documents/BMP_Grassed_Waterways.pdf
• Polluted Runoff (Nonpoint Source Pollution)
  http//www.google.com/search?qdefine3Acheckdam
  ieutf-8oeutf-8aqtrlsorg.mozillaen-USoffi
  cialclientfirefox-a
• Contour Tree Planting
• http//www.iirr.org/saem/page103-105.htm