Development, Financial Feasibility and Adoption of Decentralised Rainwater Harvesting Structures for Semi-Arid Agriculture in Rajasthan-A Study

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) plays an important role in fulfilling the needs to sustain its goal of food security as well as preventing degradation of natural resources. Decentralised RWH structures have emerged as a profitable option for sustainable irrigation in Rajasthan. The arid districts the highest number of structures, but recently there has been a higher growth in semi-arid districts as well. The farm ponds are the dominant structures in the semi-arid whereas diggis and water storage tanks (WST) in arid districts. The growth rates (47%, 127% and 85% for farm ponds, diggis and WST) of these structures have increased significantly after the commencement of RKVY in 2007–08. The financial analysis of these structures has shown that along with higher benefit-cost ratios and net present values, the internal rates of return are 22 per cent with subsidy and 6–9 per cent without subsidy. Using binary logistic regression model, it was found that subsidy and farm size had a highly positive effect on adoption rate at 5 per cent level of significance. Garret's ranking technique revealed that seepage, damage caused during rainy season and growing of unwanted weeds were the major constraints faced by adopters in the study area.