Farm pond: Resilient technology for higher productivity in rainfed farming

Abstract

Rainwater harvesting, storage and efficient utilization is important for preparedness for supplemental/pre-sowing irrigation as well as lifesaving/protective irrigation to rainfed crops to mitigate dry spells. Farm pond is one of the effective, simple and relatively low-cost ex situ rainwater harvesting structure at farm level. The network centers of All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture, located across rainfed agroecologies in India, have standardized agroecology specific farm pond sizes based on catchment-command area relationship and also developed methods/measures on various aspects of farm pond, i.e. inlet and outlet structures, seepage and evaporation control losses, and water lifting devices for packaging farm pond technologies. The farm pond sizes have been integrated into various national and state programmes/schemes, and implemented on farmers’ fields in various states.