Table 2. Recommended and Indigenous Soil and Water Conservation Practices.
Black Soil, High Rainfall Areas. Medak District, Andhra Pradesh; Akola District,
Maharashtra

Item Practices
 Recommended Indigenous

 Soil conservation Continuous graded bunds Field bunds with conservation
 drains or field drains with waste
 weirs

 Broad bed and furrow Grass strips on boundaries in
 fields with mild slope

 Moisture conservation Contour farming Normal tillage and interculture
 operations

 Runoff disposal Central waterways Boundary waterways
 Broad bed and furrow

 Water harvesting Farm ponds in gullies or private Community tanks on private
 fields for supplement irrigation holdings; post-rainy crop raised
 with residual moisture in tank bed

 Gully control Stone checks at regular Stone checks on boundary to
 intervals to stabilize gullies harvest soil and reclaim gullies

 Table 3. Recommended and Indigenous Soil and Water Conservation Practices. Red
 Soil, Low to Medium Rainfall Areas. Mahbubnagar, Anantapur, Ranga Reddy and
 Nalgonda Districts, Andhra Pradesh


Soil conservation Continuous contour Low cost stone checks across rills (in the
 bunds middle of the fields)
 Field bunds with waste weirs in upper
 watershed
 Field drains with waste weirs in lower
 watershed

 Runoff disposal Field to field through Field to field through stone waste weirs in
 earthen hooks upper watershed
 Boundary waterways in lower watershed

 Moisture Contour farming Short-term fallowing (Anantapur)
 conservation Frequent shallow interculture
 Furrowing as a part of sowing and
 interculture (Mahbubnagar)
 Cross plowing in the standing crop
 (Nalgonda)

 Gully control Stone checks to stabilize More investigation needed
 gullies

 Water harvesting Farm pond for Percolation tanks in individual holdings, or
 supplemental irrigation community tanks for percolation/irrigation

10 GATEKEEPER SERIES NO. SA34


Practices


Item


Indigenous


Recommended