New water saving technology for crops

A German water expert has offered Indian farmers a subterranean irrigation system which can help grow crops with half the normal requirement of water.

Dr W Staender, who has been advisor to the European Commission in the reorganisation of agriculture, said the Staender sub-irrigation system evolved by him was the next-generation drip irrigation. "Sprinklers waste water and my system uses one third of what drip uses," he said.

The technology evolved by Staender has special pipes with slits as thin as hair laid at a depth of 50 metres in the soil. Water is sent in round the clock from an overhead tank and the sub-soil is irrigated as water oozes out of slits, leaving no scope for evaporation and small chance for weeds to grow.

The per crop water requirement of the soil is indicated on a computer and the quantity can be reduced or increased. Water goes only where the roots need it and there is no water on the soil's surface.

Staender has signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with some NGOs and a university for pilot projects in India. He plans to approach the Centre and various state governments to further his technology.

The technique is expensive as the cost comes to ¤7,000 per hectare or Rs 4 lakh. He, however, said it could double productivity in two to seven years and turn barren lands in India into fertile bio-mass production zones.

Pilot projects were being done in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab, and MoUs had been signed with NGO Development Alternatives, Punjab Agricultural University and Rai Foundation, Staender said.

Ashok Khosla of Development Alternatives said the NGO would experiment with the project in a plantation near Delhi where the system would be used for various kinds of crops including horticultural ones, to explore its full potential before it was passed on to farmers.

"We have invested Rs 1.5 crore in a six-hectare project with special pipes, the pipe laying tractor has been provided by the Club of Budapest International, which is funding the project. We are trying to adapt a technology to Indian conditions," he said.

Staender claimed that the pipes had doubled productivity in Libya, Germany and Turkey where it was piloted.