Abstract

A study has been conducted for 3 year on impacts of the laser land leveling versus traditional land leveling on water use productivity and crop yields. The major concerns were effectiveness of laser land leveling as a water saving tool in the new context of land use and ownership, affordability of laser land leveling for farmers and the economic viability of this technology. These research questions were studied in a sizable area of laser leveled and neighboring non-leveled (control) fields for 2009 to 2011. The result indicated that with laser leveling, farmers could save irrigation water 21%, energy by 31% and obtained 6.6, 5.4 and 10.9% in rice, wheat and sugarcane higher yields. The total irrigation duration and applied water depth was reduced to 10.9, 14.7% in rice; 13.7, 13.3% in wheat and 13.5, 20.3% in sugar-cane as compared to traditional leveled fields. The laser leveled fields exhibited the highest water use efficiency (WUE), which was 48, 47 and 49% higher in precisely leveled field than control (unleveled), 22, 19 and 20% higher than traditionally leveling fields, respectively. The average water productivity in rice, wheat and sugarcane has improved by 33%. The average annual net income from the laser field was 14, 13.5 and 23.8% in rice, wheat, sugarcane higher than that from the traditional leveled field. It was concluded that the use of laser land leveling increases yield and saves irrigation water as compared to traditional method of leveling in different cropping system prevailing in western U.P.

Key words: Crop productivity, laser leveled land leveling, water use efficiency, water productivity.