Centre of Excellence on Water Management

As water is precious natural resource its overexploitation, misuse and breaking the path of water cycle lead to its reduction and shortage for domestic, industrial and agricultural purpose. The increasing population, industrialization and urbanization raised the demand of water for feed and sustain the life of living things. Erratic behaviour of rainfall due to climate change increased frequency of drought as well as heavy rainfall and both these phenomena impact the agricultural production. Development of irrigation practice ensures the sustained productivity but injudicious application of water lead to low water productivity. Growing trend of high water demanding crops has also posed the risk about depletion of water resources at local level. The quality of water for crops is also being deteriorated which affect the health o crop, animal and fishes.

To mitigate the emerging challenges like depleting water table, erratic rainfall, inefficient irrigation system, poor drainage network and sustaining the productivity of rainfed and water logged areas the Centre of Excellence on Water Management under the umbrella of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University was established in the university campus at Pusa (Samastipur) on 17th February, 2020 and inaugurated by Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare Shri Kailash Choudhary Ji.

Vision

Providing leadership for research, development, capacity building and transfer of technology for conservation and management of water resources under the changing scenario of climate in eastern region of India.

Mission

To address irrigation and water management issues with harnessing the traditional and new frontier areas of science and technology.

1. Popularization of Efficient Pressurized Irrigation Systems and development of fertigation protocols for different crops.
2. Development of Ground Water Recharge Techniques and adoption of efficient water management practices.
3. Elucidating soil plant atmospheric continuum relationship under different irrigation management practices and use of waste water for irrigation.
4. Development of technologies for increasing safe use of municipal and industrial waste water.
5. Investigation of Water-Food Nexus in human health through agricultural and aquaculture crops.
6. Enhancing water productivity of rainfed ecosystem through proper land use planning, advanced agronomical practices, engineering approaches and multiple uses of water.
7. Optimization of different agro-management practices at field as well as regional scale using integrated approach of Drone and Satellite based observations and development of Decision Support System (DSS) for early warning of various biotic and abiotic stresses.
8. Development of Efficient Water Management options for the underutilized Chaur, Tal and Diara
9. Automation of efficient surface irrigation systems for small farms.
10. Development and Creation of Net Water Positive Zones (NWPZ) and popularization of small scale location specific solar irrigation systems.

Mitigating the emerging challenges like lowering of water table, erratic rainfall, sustaining the productivity of rainfed areas and enhancing the productivity of water logged area, some goals have been set for the centre, keeping the biophysical and socio-economic problems of the region in view. The approaches to be used to attain these goals and their performance measures have been enlisted below:

The following objectives have been set for the centre which addresses various goals defined for the centre:

1. To conduct, coordinate and promote water management research through multi-disciplinary approach.
2. To collect, collate and disseminate information relating to availability of water resources for irrigation, advanced technology of water management and effective utilization of irrigation water.
3. To develop/ identify proper irrigation methodologies and systems for small farmers and power deficit areas.
4. To develop methodologies for management of rain water for judicious use and to develop and evaluate groundwater recharge technologies for augmenting groundwater availability under different hydro-geological conditions.
5. To develop Decision Support Systems (DSS) and Expert Systems for real time monitoring of agro-ecosystem, early warning of various biotic and abiotic stresses and assessment of LULC changes on regional scale using Artificial Intelligence, GIS & RS and other modern techniques.
6. To develop technology for safe use of waste water in agriculture.
7. To act as a nodal centre for imparting capacity building programmes for various stakeholders – scientists, senior level officers, extension functionaries and farmers.

To achieve the objective of the centre addressing the thrust area, year wise action plan is presented below. Organizing various events such as seminars/ symposium/ workshop (at International, National and State level), short courses, field days and farmers’ meetings will be a regular feature. Documentation of the research findings in appropriate formats and publishing the technical bulletins/ handouts etc. for the dissemination of technology generated among different stakeholders will be carried out on priority.

The centre has been provided with adequate scientific manpower and technical staff is being deployed day-by-day. But, to address the thrust areas and meet the objectives of the centre it is pertinent to have required infrastructural facilities for the analysis of the primary experimental data. Initially four laboratories namely – GIS & Remote Sensing Lab., Soil Plant Atmosphere Continuum (SPAC) Lab., Water Quality Testing Lab. and Pressurized Irrigation System Lab. are required to be established in the centre so that the scientists of the centre can formulate experimental plan and start working independently. The requirement of the each laboratory is summarized below.

1. GIS & Remote Sensing Lab.

This laboratory will fulfill the objective of evaluation and optimization of different agro-management practices at field scale using simulation models, development of Decision Support System (DSS) for real time monitoring of agro-ecosystem and assessment of LULC changes and establishment of a regional center for EDUSAT courses of ISRO – IIRS, Dehradun for faculty and students of RPCAU.

2. Soil Plant Atmosphere Continuum (SPAC) Lab.

Establishment of soil plant atmosphere continuum (SPAC) laboratory at Centre of Excellence on Water Management is essential to facilitate the research activities on water management aspects. Different parameters (chemical and physiological) of soil and plant samples will be analyzed in this laboratory. This laboratory is highly essential to analyze different soil and plant morpho-physiological changes occurred due to water stresses or different agro-technique employed at field level as well. Besides, lab can also be very beneficial for conducting hands on training for the students of water management courses of master and doctoral level from different departments.

3. Water Quality Testing Lab.

The studies related to use of poor quality water in agriculture requires analysis of the various quality parameters of irrigation water, analysis of the uptake of various toxic element by the plant and analysis of the chemical and physical parameters of soil which are likely to be affected due to use of poor quality water. This laboratory will be used for analysis of water, plant and soil samples.

4. Pressurized Irrigation System Lab.

This laboratory will be used for display of various irrigation equipments and the components of the pressurized irrigation systems, demonstration of the functions and merits of the systems giving hands on training to the various stake holders in operation and maintenance of these irrigation systems. The laboratory will also be used for conducting studies on the hydraulics of various components of the pressurized irrigations systems.