SLAEB has initiated a program in the field of isotope ecology to deal with biological systems with special emphasis on “Increase of crop productivity under drought conditions by using isotope techniques to optimize water usage in agricultural crops”. The objective of the program is to introduce and manage irrigation schedules for selected crops in the dry zone areas in the country.

The Science

Stable isotopes are frequently used as tracers in biological systems, and their ability to track changes and processes over time has made them increasingly important to ecological research. Isotope ecology use isotope tracers in correct and creative ways to solve environmental problems. The study of the separation of evapotranspiration into soil evaporation and crop transpiration will help to understand the proportion of water loss through unproductive soil evaporation, so that irrigation or available water through rainfall can be optimized for crop uptake in different stages of their life cycle. This will enable measures to be taken to develop guidelines that enable farmers to minimize soil evaporation in their efforts to optimize water use efficiency.