Leh: Agricultural activities revive at abandoned Kulum village with micro irrigation technologies

Kulum, a village with two hamlets has been abandoned due to washout of all its water sources by the flash floods of infamous 2010 Cloudburst.

District Agriculture department under the guidance of Ladakh AutonomousHillDevelopment Council adopted lower Kullum this year for promotion of micro irrigation ofdrip and sprinkle systems to create water sources.

Kulum is the secondvillage after Alchi where the central sponsored micro irrigation has been introduced.

Motto - Back to Villages , the trial of agriculturalfarming started in June this year with two cash crops - summer squash andPotatoes and one forage crop Alfalfa.

Micro-irrigation conserves water as they use pipes or underground tubes.

It delivers water directly to the soil surface close to the plant roots – avoiding wastage of water through evaporation or flooding.

Micro-irrigation systems ensure uniform distribution of water by delivering water only wherever necessary.

The micro irrigation system can be classified in respect to variety of parameters. The micro irrigation encompasses several ways of water application to plants: drip, spray, subsurface and bubbler irrigation.

Uses: Micro-irrigation can increase yields and decrease water, fertiliser and labour requirements. By applying water directly to the root zone, the practice reduces loss of water through conveyance, run-off, deep percolation and evaporation.