Improvement of traditional rain water harvesting structures for multiple use of water through ifs modules under farmers participatory action research programme

Availability of water for agricultural use has been reducing due to growing water scarcity and competing water demands. Efforts are needed to utilize the available limited water resources efficiently and effectively to increase water productivity by adopting suitable IFS modules. To increase water productivity vis-a –vis to provide better employment in farm sector, a Farmers Participatory Action Research Programme (FPARP) on water management was carried out by Krishi Vigayan Kendra Sonitpur, Assam during 2011–12. An IFS module integrating horticultural crops, fisheries and poultry component was adopted for judiciously using harvested rainwater from a renovated traditional rain water harvesting structure under the FPARP. The study revealed markable increase in water productivity and other parameters in the IFS module adopted for multiple use of water in comparison to the conventional system. The daily per capita availability of energy in (K cal) was recorded to be 551.97 in conventional system and 851.14 under multiple use of water. The B:C ratio increased from 3.2 (conventional system) to 4.7 in multiple use. In conventional system water requirement (ha cm), WUP (kg/ha.cm), labour requirement (man days/ha) and labour use efficiency (kg/ha/labour) were recorded to be 90, 27.28, 16 and 14.2, respectively and their corresponding values recorded in multiple use of water were 240, 40.5, 83 and 25.5.