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Polythene mulches have been practiced for soil solarisation during winter months in various vegetable crops and have been found superior over other types of mulches, but plastics is create environmental problems. With this in view the present study has be undertaken on clay loam soil at Raipur, Chhattisgarh for Rabi onion. The aim of the experiment was to study the hydraulic performance of existing drip irrigation system under different operating pressure and prepare used plastic based mulching sheet to evaluate their performance in terms of change in micro-climate. In this study eight different types of mulching conditions were considered viz. black plastic mulch (BPM), silver plastic mulch (SPM), used reddish rice bag mulch (RBM), used whitish wheat flour bag mulch (WFBM), used yellowish cement bag mulch (CBM), Paddy straw mulch (PSM), soil mulch (SM) and without mulch (WM) (control) and comparison was done among them in micro-climatic condition. The main micro-climatic parameters like soil temperature, soil moisture content, soil moisture depletion were studied with randomized block designed in three replications. In Hydraulic performances of drip irrigation system were studied for 2.4 l h-1 inline emitters at 1, 1.2 and 1.5 kg cm-2 pressures, discharges from drippers were found to be 1.99 l h-1, 2.22 l h-1 and 2.33 l h-1, coefficient of variation 0.061, 0.044 and 0.029 were found and emission uniformity 95.59%, 96.54% and 96.69% were found, respectively. Also, from this study, it was found that during forenoon soil temperature increases with increasing soil depth but in afternoon the trend was vice-versa. The maximum soil moisture content (27.89%) was found under BPM and minimum soil moisture content (21.52%) was found under used WM. Similarly soil moisture depletion was found minimum in BPM (0.31 mm) and maximum under WM (3.08 mm) under all eight types of mulches. The study concludes that the hydraulic performance of drip irrigation system was found good and needs to be operated at 1.2-1.5 kg cm-2 pressure for 2.4 lh-1 inline emitter. At a particular spacing, the emission uniformity, uniformity coefficient and irrigation efficiencies increases when operating pressure is increased but coefficient of variation and emitter flow variation decreases when operating pressure is increased. Mulching roll can be prepared from used plastic bags which are available with the farmers in plenty and can be reused as mulching material satisfactorily by small and marginal farmers.

Kinetic energy of water powered pumping system is a cheap, efficient and precise way of delivering water to farm pond/open well from nearby canal or nallah. The pumping system is simple to develop, install, operate and very much cater to the need of rural remote area. It may be suitable for un-electrified as well as unreliable electric supply area. A cup type water wheel pumping system (CTWWPS) has been developed with major components as cart wheel, axel, cups, bearing, hub pulley, belt and a centrifugal pump. The cups were mounted on the periphery of wheel and fixed over the frame. The power from the wheel is transferred to the pulley of pump. Flowing water pushes the cup, hence, the wheel rotates and so the pulley of the pump. CTWWPS gave a discharge 0.178 to 0.378 lps at suction head of 0.56 m to 0.25 m and delivery head of 1.30 m to 0.70 m under 0.23 m to 0.59 m of head over the flume.

Gravity drip system of irrigation is a cheap, efficient and precised way of providing irrigation water for the kitchen garden. The system is simple to develop, install, operate and very much cater to the need of urban as well as rural kitchen gardening and needs of small and marginal farmers under Badi system of cultivation. It is especially suitable for un-electrified as well as unreliable electric supply area. However, its hydraulic performance needs to be assessed before being used in the kitchen garden for smooth and precise application of water and nutrient. In this study a gravity drip system of irrigation was developed and its hydraulic performance has been evaluated. The system was developed with a platform supported by a frame of 2.55 m height, an overhead tank of 750 liter, 20 m sub main of 63 mm diameter, 200 m lateral of 16 mm with 1.3 lph rated discharge, control valve, flush valve, 10 nos. lateral filters, 10 nos. lateral valves, end caps etc. for a plot of 100 sq. m. (20m × 5m). Hydraulic performance of the system was then evaluated on levelled field at Department of Soil and Water Engineering, IGKV, Raipur, in terms of effect of pressure (head) on discharge, manufacturing coefficient of variation, mean flow rate deviation, uniformity coefficient, application efficiency and distribution efficiency at the falling head of 3.55 m to 2.60 m from the emitting surface. Coefficient of variation, emitter flow variation, uniformity coefficient, application efficiency and distribution efficiency was found to be 4.77%, 14.54%, 95.23%, 91.21% and 95.97% which are in the acceptable limits.