Climate resilient water management need of the hour

BHUBANESWAR: Keeping the climate change problem in mind, the research institutes and governments should focus on climate resilient water management in the state and the country. The experts attending a training programme on ‘Climate smart water management in agriculture for enhancing farm profit and sustainability’ at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management (IIWM) here said this on Monday.
They said climate change will create more hot days in future leading to drought in different areas. It will badly impact on water resources too. “To tackle this situation, proper water management is need of the hour. So, a big challenge for us to save the rainwater and use the existing water resources judiciously,” said Binayak Rath, former vice chancellor of Utkal University, while inaugurating the eight-day national-level training programme for government officials.
PK Panda, principal scientist of IIWM, said farmers can use techniques and technology to manage water wisely. “Land modification is a good technique in this regard. A farmer can create pond to conserve rainwater and pisciculture. He can also modify the land by creating several mounds in the paddy fields to grow vegetables along with paddy. Even he can grow horticulture crops on the bank of pond. In this way, a farmer not only yield good profit but also use the water in a judicious manner,” he added.

Panda said the farmers should apply water during tillering, flowering and grain filling of a crop to save water and use it in a proper manner. “We should use organic manure and compost to increase water retaining capacity of soil. It will help the crop and reduce the use of excess water,” he added.
IIWM’s principal scientist Gouranga Kar said micro irrigation can bring big change in use of water. “We should develop seeds which can be grown with minimum water. Low water requiring crop can become an answer to this. Besides, use of micro irrigation system like drip irrigation and sprinklers in agriculture,” he said.