Top soil washing away every monsoon on my hill slope farm. Want erosion control methods.
How to control soil erosion on sloping farmland?
TTek Chand1yr ago · 370 views
6 Answers
🌾Farmer.in Krishi TeamExpert ✓1yr ago
On slopes the key is to slow the water and hold the soil so runoff cannot carry away the fertile top layer. Make contour bunds and contour cultivation across the slope rather than up and down, build terraces or bench terraces on steeper land, and dig staggered trenches in the catchment to break the flow. Keep the soil covered with crops, cover crops, grasses or mulch because bare soil erodes fastest, and plant grass strips, fodder grasses or trees like vetiver along the bunds to bind the soil. Stone check dams in the natural drainage lines stop gully formation. These measures also recharge groundwater by letting water soak in. Watershed development programmes support contour bunding and terracing, so ask your agriculture and watershed department.
RRoshan Lal1yr ago
Planting grass on the bunds stopped the cutting on my terraces. Earlier the bund itself would wash off, now the roots hold it.
KKhem Singh11mo ago
Ploughing along the contour instead of down the slope made a big difference for me. Simple change, less soil lost and water stays in the field longer.
HHem Raj Thakur11mo ago
Stone check dams in the small gullies saved my land. Where water used to cut a deep channel, the loose stone bunds slowed it and silt started settling instead of washing away.
DDile Ram Negi11mo ago
I planted fodder grass like napier on the bund edges. It binds the soil and gives me green chara for the cattle too. Two benefits from one strip.
KKaram Chand11mo ago
Do not leave the field bare after harvest before monsoon, that is when the worst soil goes. I keep a quick cover or leave residue till the next sowing, and the runoff is much clearer now.