Scope of Subsurface Drip Irrigation in the State of Chhattisgarh Singh D K1, Singh R M2, Rao KVR1 1Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal – 462 038, M.P., India, email: dksingh@ciae.res.in. 2Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221005, UP, India. Abstract Irrigation is the prime need of the state Chhattisgarh for its agriculture, which support about 80% population. During the last three years, the area under horticulture crops in the state has increased from 95,000 ha to 2.16 lakh ha. Horticultural crops are best suited to micro irrigation system. But, only around three thousands hectare area of the state is under micro irrigation. Therefore, there is great scope of use of micro irrigation in horticultural crops. Among micro irrigation, subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) has been found beneficial in increasing crop yield as well as water saving and use of marginal water as compared to other methods. The SDI system has been used for irrigating more than 30 diverse food and fiber crops including vegetables, horticultural and agronomic crops under different soil and climatic conditions, and utilizing marginal and waste water. With increasing trends in area under horticulture crops and upcoming of special fruit and vegetable markets in the state as well as our experiences signify that SDI has great potential for its use to enhance crop yield and water saving in Chhatisgarh. Top Keywords Horticulture, Drip irrigation, Subsurface drip irrigation, Crop yield, Water saving. Top |