Abstract
Rainfall variability and water scarcity continue to hamper the food and income security of smallholder farming systems in poverty-affected regions. Innovations in soil and water management, especially in the drylands, are critical for meeting food security and water productivity targets of Agenda 2030. This study analyzes how rainfed agriculture can be intensified with marginal impact on the landscape water balance. The impact of rainwater harvesting structures on landscape hydrology and associated agricultural services was analyzed in the semi-arid Jhansi district of Bundelkhand region in central India. The Parasai-Sindh pilot watershed was subjected to a 5-year (2012–2016) monitoring of rainfed system improvements in water availability and crop intensification due to surface water storage (haveli system), check dams, and field infiltration structures. Hydrological processes were monitored intensively to analyze the landscape’s water balance components. Rainwater harvesting (RWH) structures altered the landscape’s hydrology, limiting average surface runoff from 250 mm/year to 150 mm/year over the study period. Groundwater levels increased by 2–5 m (m), alleviating water scarcity issues of the communities in recurring dry years. Nearly 20% of fallow lands were brought under cultivation. Crop yields increased by 10–70% and average household income increased from US$ 960/year to US$ 2700/year compared to that in the non-intervention landscape. The combined soil–water–vegetation efforts strengthened water resilience and environmental systems in agricultural landscape.
Highlights
Increasing population pressure, change in food habits, and expanding urbanization are driving the increase in demand for freshwater globally (De Fraiture and Wichelns, 2010; Gerten and Heinke, 2011; Wiltshire et al, 2013; Davis et al, 2017)
Bundelkhand region of Central India lies between the Indo-Gangetic Plains to the north and the Vindhya range to the south
The current study showed that in the absence of Rainwater harvesting (RWH) structures, the quantity of runoff in dry years would have had negligible impact at downstream sites while no significant reduction in water availability was observed during the wet year
Summary
Increasing population pressure, change in food habits, and expanding urbanization are driving the increase in demand for freshwater globally (De Fraiture and Wichelns, 2010; Gerten and Heinke, 2011; Wiltshire et al, 2013; Davis et al, 2017). There is increasing competition among different anthropogenic sectors such as domestic, agriculture, industries and for the biosphere (Garg et al, 2012; Molle and Berkoff, 2006; Niu et al, 2019). This led to increasing stress among different sectors/stakeholders for their share on the available water resources (Al-Saidi, 2017; Punjabi and Johnson, 2019). As agriculture is the largest consumer of freshwater, its declining availability has a direct impact on food security, sustainability, and livelihoods for millions of rural households, especially in developing countries like India (Berchoux et al, 2019; Garg et al, 2020; Zarei et al, 2020)
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