A STUDY ON DEVELOPMENT OF LOW COST ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLY AND SUSTAINABLE IRRIGATION TECHNIQUES

As we can see, the world today is developing and there has been a lot of changes taking place till date. It might be the rise in population, shrinkage in the availability of land for food requirement, day to day increase in demand of water, year to year decrease in groundwater table etc. It is the responsibility of every citizen to see that requirements of present generation are met without compromising on meeting the requirements of future generation. In the name of various development projects such as infrastructure, industrial and also housing, Government of Andhra Pradesh, India, has alone diverted 35000 acres of fertile land which is meeting the food needs of people in and around Vijayawada. Similarly fertile land is being diverted for development of port based projects, highways, industrial corridors, establishment of new airports. This is expected to result in tremendous pressure on land resources and water resources in meeting the requirements of food of growing population. In the present study, attempts have been made to explore various irrigation systems such as Soilless farming, Vertical Farming and Aquaponics, that can be adopted in water scarce areas like rayalaseema and prakasam districts of Andhra Pradesh. Each irrigation technique is studied to explore the possibility of reducing the cost of establishment utilizing the limited water resources available in these areas.