Beneficiary Participation and Sustainability of Farm Ponds in Marathwada and Vidarbha regions of Maharashtra

The present study was carried out in Marathwada and Vidarbha region of Maharashtra during 2021-2022 to determine the degree of participation of farm pond owners and sustainability of the farm ponds programme. The data collected from 160 farm ponds beneficiaries revealed that overall participation mean score of beneficiary respondents was 74.76, among majority participated in implementation stage (MS 83.25) followed by planning stage (MS 76.08) and the maintenance stage (MS 66.38). According to the cumulative cube root frequency method, 49.36 per cent of respondents were found in medium, followed by low (45.65%) and high (5%) level of programme participation. Seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) results of sustainability of farm pond revealed that education and social participation were found significant at 5 per cent level in ecological sustainability. Also the variables like social participation and innovativeness were found significant at 10 per cent level in economic sustainability. In social sustainability of farm pond, the variables viz. economic motivation social participation and risk orientation were found significant at 1, 5 and 10 per cent level, respectively.