Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Apatani Irrigation System



There are many finer practices of irrigation of agricultural fields among the Apatanis. One is the channel within the field to ensure retention of appropriate amounts of water throughout the year. These channels also prevent sudden drainage and subsequent washing away of fertile top soil from the field.

With the increased popularity of psciculture, more innovative methods are being used these days .

5 comments:

  1. Kanno, what is this 'O' shaped structure meant for or its significance? Earlier this structure was never there, as far as I remember. It looks an innovation to our farming system.

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  2. I would say this structure is a modification rather than an innovation. Usually, two kinds of drainage pipes - hurbu - are used: one to drain water from the pakho/siikho. When this hurbu is opened whole water in the field is drained out. The other type of hurbu is to drain water when a certain level is reached. They are not placed against the pakho/siikho, but on other portions of ager.
    This "O" shaped structure provides home to place both types of hurbus as can be seen from the picture.

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  3. Dear Kanno,

    I contact you on behalf of VOGT Landscape Architects, Zurich.
    This year, we are going to publish a book dedicated to projects and our kind of working.
    We are planning to use the image above for our publication.
    Therefore we would like to ask you if you could grant us a right to reproduce it in our book.

    We would appreciate your cooperation!
    Thank you for your answer and best wishes,

    Jakob Loock / j.loock@vogt-la.ch

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Jakob,
    Thank you for your interest in the image. You may use them with proper acknowledgement.
    Kanno

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