Watershed Approach To Prevent and Control Soil Erosion A Case Study

摘要

The watershed is a contiguous geomgraphical area with a common drainage. To prevent and control erosion different aspects were integrated in the watershed. The major focus is on conservation of soil and water by construction of check dams, RRS, boulder checks, nala bunds and farm ponds. In addition, unarable lands were used for horticulture and forestry crops to avoid gully formation by run off water crop production aspects were covered to stabilize and increase the yield of crops, by adopting low cost practices and techniques. The techniques like mixed cropping agri-Horti, Agro-forestry, etc. Keeping these things in view, a stuy was conducted during 1997-98 to know the extent of erosion control by watershed approach. The Hosurhalla watershed in Karnataka, India, was studied on three major programmes: (1) Measures adopted for soil and water conservation; (2) Technologies adopted in crop production to increase yields. (3) The utilization pattern of waste lands. Finally, measured the contribution of watershed approach to prevent and control soil erosion. The average rainfall of the catchment area is 533.80 mm. In general, the monsoon starts from May and continues till November, highest rainfall is received during August to October months. The temperature ranges from 18 degrees C to 38 degrees C. On an average the humidity will be 40 to 80 percent. The soils are mostly red sandy loam, with shallow to medium depth. The general slope of the catchment ranging from 3 to 10 percent and soils are rich in K_2O, medium in "N" and poor in P_2O_5 and with medium organic matter content. The pH of the soil ranged from 5-7, in general acidic soils. The results of the study indicate that the watershed approach helped to prevent and control soil erosion in Hosurhalla watershed. The soil fertility increased along with production level of crops.