Research Objectives

O1: Estimate evapotranspiration (ET) flux at two study sites in Kanpur.

O2: Partition ET flux into soil evaporation (E) and plant transpiration (T) fluxes, and investigate

Diurnal fluctuations in the fluxes;
Variations in the fluxes during a cropping season;
Differences in the fluxes between two cropping seasons, namely Rabi (wheat) and Kharif (rice);

O3: Quantify uncertainties in the estimates of E, T and ET fluxes.

Study area

Bithoor study site: This site is approximately 18 Km from IIT Kanpur campus. Aproximate land area is 5400 m2. At this site natural farming is practiced. Natural farming is also called as zero budget natural farming which was popularised by Shri Subhash Palekar who established Zero budget Natural Farming (ZBNF). Natural Farming can be dened as “chemical- free and livestock based farming”.
IIT Kanpur study site: This site is located inside IIT Kanpur campus. Site comprised of 24 subplots of aproximately 3.5 m by 3.5 m dimensions. Site is equipped with state of the art instrumnts for understanding of soil-plant-atmospheric continumm (SPAC). Natural farming is practiced in 12 plots at this site, while the remaining 12 plots are used for chemical fertilizer-based farming.