Hyderabad: Water is a precious. It is life. Can we imagine our lives without water.So Water has to be conserved in every possible way. Reducing water evaporation farm ponds is a big challenge.

Normally general pools see ¼ – ½ inch loss of water per day due to evaporation. This is roughly 2 – 4 inches per week. For a normal sized pool, you will lose 25,000 to 50,000 gallons of water per year.

Here is a farmer M.S.Subrahmanyam Raju of Hyderabad, who a technique known to generations but nobody used it to arrest water evaporation losses of farm ponds.

This technique has to be used only for farm ponds and not general pools. By arresting water loss, we can keep project cost under control. Otherwise, we end up using more water, more energy, he said

A undertook two experiments. One at Gingurthy village with Ekalavya Organic Polytechnique School and the other one was with Krishi Vignan Kendra. The procedure developed by my yielded good results

My experiment, Raju says was to reduce water evaporation losses in farm ponds exclusively for agriculture purpose. We could reduce water evaporation losses up to 70% with eco-friendly treatment and edible materials.

The materials were farmers (Users) friendly and are easily available and no need to purchase from any branded or commercial products. The materials are available everywhere, farmers can procure and do their own.

Physical properties of materials to be selected should be edible, less dense than water and higher evaporation point when compares to water.

The required material isany edible (cooking) oils. Once used or discarded edible oils are better for reducing expenditure.

Method of working & Principle

Edible oils are less dense (0.92) than water density (1). So, oil floats on water always and does not easily dissolve. Edible oils evaporation point (120C) is far higher than water evaporation point (5C) approximately. Evaporation point variesdue to several parameters. Oils make a thin film on water and reflects heat, so radiation is less, naturally evaporation is less.

How to apply & when to apply:

Evaporation losses are more on shiny and windy days. We should apply edible oil directly on top of water surface at multiple points. It distributes automatically.

Is edible oil harmful to plants?

No. Edible oil adds nutrition to plants.

How to reduce more water evaporation losses with other things?

Wind is also playing key role for evaporation. So high rise plantation and create shade is the best to reduce more evaporation losses.

Cost Vs Savings of water volume Calculations?

Cost of discarded edible oil 50 rupees per litre. For thousand sq. m we are using 25 litres first time, then 13 litres per month. From March to August is critical for water and records temp from 30 to 45 centigrade.

April, May, June months have very high temp and March, July, August have above normal temperature. So, on average as per my experience 5mm to 15 mm water evaporation per day says Raju. So average 1 cm or 10mm per day water gets evaporated.

As per his calculations, a pond with  1000 Sq m area, a  farmer can save 10,000 litres per day, 18,00,000 litres in six months with an investment of 4500 rupees in six months

Mr Raju who is a general secretary of Telangana State for Go Aadharitha Prakriti Vyavasayadarula Sangham has done many experiments in connection with soil reclamation in the past. And has many innovations to his credit.

Farmers should adopt simple techniques to prevent evaporation. Raju is planning to create more awareness about it through public seminars, social media and traditional media as a social service to the farming community.

One year since the experiments were done with the age-old known technique, Raju interacted and conveyed to the thousands of farmers. He has been steadily importing to farmers the several farming techniques without any motives.