Relationship of Catchment, Storage Capacity and Command Area for Rainwater Harvesting in the Farm Pond

Abstract

For construction of farm pond, the important factor is its location. Normally farmers dug out the farm ponds without considering technical aspects. At All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture, Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, demonstrations of site-specific farm ponds based on catchment area were planned and conducted. Based on runoff from the catchment area, the storage in the farm pond was assessed and the relationship was developed. Here, the results of the relationship of catchment, storage and command during the years 2014–2015 to 2016–2017 are presented. During 2016–2017, the runoff causing rainfall in the catchment area of 5 ha of farm pond was 301.3 mm which helps in accumulation of 2014.8 m3 runoff in the farm pond. Therefore, the catchment–storage–command relationship for the season can be given as, from 5 ha catchment, 2014.8 m3 water was stored in the farm pond which can irrigate (command) about 4.0 ha area. Moreover, the available water in the farm ponds was utilized for giving protective irrigations to different crops including vegetables. It was observed that due to utilization of stored farm pond water for protective irrigation, the yield of soybean during Kharif, chickpea during Rabi and vegetables during winter-summer had been increased.