Evaluation of benefits from harvested rain water in farm ponds

Abstract

Farm ponds constructed in the Navsari Agricultural University (NAU) campus,  were evaluated with an aim to quantify the benefits derived and to assess the  economic feasibility of pond during 2011. The study in NAU campus was taken up  as its watersheds are perfect representation of western coast of India and the  developments made act as demonstration for students and farmers. The main  benefit was creation of irrigation facility in the uncultivable waste lands. In  addition to providing regular irrigation during rabi and summer seasons, one or  two supplementary irrigations in paddy during dry spells in monsoon season  catapulted production levels. Prior to construction of pond, Live Stock Research  Station (LRS) used to purchase fodder worth lakhs of rupees, due to lack of  ^-1 irrigation facility. Poor quality drinking water (around 5 dS m ) was provided to  the animals affecting health and milk production. After construction of pond,  ^-1 animals were provided with better quality of drinking water (< 2 dS m ) from the  well located at the boundary of pond which improved animals health as well as  production levels. Moreover, pond provides great aesthetic value to the campus.  Health cautions denizens, birds of the region as well as many migratory birds were  found hovering over the pond. Recreational relevancy coefficient calculated from  responses of the sample respondents showed high value for irrigation (0.88),  scenic beauty (0.87) and biodiversity conservation (0.87). The economic benefits from the ponds show, BCR in almost all crops except  paddy, was above 2 which underlines the alternate land use by cultivating grasses  which have a great demand in dairy farms. Highest BCR was obtained while  growing fodder maize and lucerne grass (2.54). Sugarcane and banana, both cash  crops, though require more water, recorded BCR of 2.03 and 2.34, respectively.  The Net Present Worth (NPW) and Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) of pond was found to  be greater than zero and greater than 1, respectively which proves the worth of  ponds. Cost of digging the PG hostel pond and spreading of earth in the low lying  fields was ` 7.5 lakhs only giving BCR of 17.30. These results prove that ponds  not only give several invaluable intangible benefits but also provide very high  monetary returns. The results could help the policy makers, planners and  researchers while assessing the performance of ponds or other rain water  harvesting structures (RWHS) under watershed development programmes.