Rainwater Harvesting and Recycling for Sustainable Agriculture in Assured Rainfall Zone of Marathwada Region, Maharashtra

The study was conducted with dug out farm pond at Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani, during 2010–11 to 2013–14. Reutilization study on protective irrigation to soybean was conducted during kharif 2013. On an average, runoff of 12.43% and harvesting potential of 11.10% of rainfall was observed from the catchment area of 1.60 ha during experimentation period. An average total storage loss of 1718.10 m³ was observedduring theperiod from July to December comprising an evaporation and seepage losses of 150.59 m³ (8.67%) and 1567.51 m³ (90.29%), respectively. One protective irrigation of 5 cm to soybean at maturity stage during prevailing critical dryspell, increased soybean grain yield by 30.87%. An average irrigation potential, on the basis of monthly storage volume of farm pond during 2010 and 2013, was observed as 0.87 ha.