Development and harnessing of water resources for livelihood improvement of smallholder farmers in Eastern India

Abstract

The study was carried out in two clusters of villages in Dhenkanalsadar block and Odapada block, respectively, in Dhenkanal district of Odisha, India. Agricultural technology interventions like construction of water harvesting structures (WHSs), multiple use of water in WHSs and crop diversification were done in the six identified study villages within two clusters. Ten WHSs distributed over six villages were constructed in farmers' field on participatory basis in which farmers paid a part of the expenditure. Multiple use of water in WHSs was done in terms of agriculture, on-dyke horticulture, vegetable cultivation, pisiculture, poultry and duckery to develop them as farming system models. Farmer groups were formed for vegetable cultivation and water melon cultivation by river lift irrigation. Adequate trainings and exposure visit of farmers were also conducted on water management technologies. The economic analysis of the farming system model showed that the internal rate of return (IRR) is 19.6% and benefit-cost ratio (BCR) is 3.65. The impact analysis on livelihood of farmers was studied as a function of physical assets, social assets, financial assets, human assets and natural assets of the farmers, before and after the interventions. The analysis indicated that maximum improvement occurred in physical assets (increase by 78%) followed by natural assets (66%). Mean value of overall standard of living of the farmers derived through addition of the mean values of five assets (ranged from 5 to 25) showed an increase from 10.24 to 14.15 indicating improvement of overall livelihood.