CONSERVATION OF SOIL MOISTURE IN DRY LAND FARMING'

Abstract

In tracts where irrigation works are few, either due to the geographical situation of the place or to the want of sufficient finance to undertake major irrigation works-either productive or protective -rainfall is ipso-facto the limiting factor in successful crop produc- tion. Such tracts as suffer from this initial disability of a geogra- phical disadvantage and handicap, must needs depend on Nature, to send forth her timely showers on parched up lands and crops. To this class, may be assigned the districts of Bellary, Anantapur, Cuddapah and Kurnool-and portions of Guntur and Nellore. The first four districts verily form the 'Famine zone of the Madras Presidency and the scope of this article is to show how best an agrarian calamity can be averted by improving the present agricultural practices and by the application of suitable methods for the conservation of soil moisture. It has come to pass-as evidenced from the statistics at our dis- posal that crop failure as a result of inadequate rainfall, is a matter of common occurrence and a normal crop has been purely an acci- dental achievement.