Assam farmers reap benefits of sustainable irrigation technique

Alternate wetting and drying, a sustainable irrigation technique, is helping paddy farmers in Assam reduce the cost of irrigation, enhance crop production and decrease methane emissions from their fields.

Tankeshwar Patowary, a rice farmer from Garibhitha village in?Assam’s Barpeta district, cultivates boro paddy in his 4-bigha land. But he no longer floods his paddy field with water like he used to. He left the practice after learning about alternate wetting and drying – a cost-effective sustainable irrigation method.???

In Assam – the land of the red river and blue hills – farming is the main livelihood for over 70 percent of the population in rural areas. Rice is the main crop and it is grown using traditional irrigation practices.?

Research shows that the traditional irrigation method requires flooding of the field. This leads to generation of methane (CH4), a greenhouse gas, and change in climatic parameters like rainfall pattern, temperature shift and relative humidity.?

To promote sustainable farming practices, mitigate methane emission from rice fields, reduce irrigation cost and increase productivity,?Sanjog, a grassroots organisation working on rural livelihood, disaster management and promotion of micro-enterprises in Assam, has introduced an alternate wetting and drying method of irrigation.

This sustainable irrigation method is being implemented by farmers of Barpeta and Nalbari districts with the support of Sanjog and Kosher Climate, a consultancy in the sustainability domain.

Alternate wetting and drying?

Initially hesitant, Patowary decided to test the new method. He grew rice in a part of his land using the AWD irrigation technique while he used the traditional method in the other part. Not only did he see a drop in costs but he also saw an increase in yield and apparent robustness in the crop.?

Alternate wetting and drying (AWD) is an irrigation method that was developed by the?International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)?in 2002. It reduces methane emission from the field while also cutting the cost of irrigation. It also minimises the incidence of diseases and pests in the nursery and in the field.?

read more at villagesquare.in