Pond Renovation for Harvesting and Recycling of Rain Water: an Experimental Trial in Sub Himalayan Terai Region of India

Sub Himalayan Terai region of India falls under heavy rainfall zone and significant amount of rainfall occurs during Kharif season. Whereas in rabi season farmers struggle to cultivated crops due to shortage of water following minimum to no rainfall. To overcome the difficulty, Krishi Vigyan Kendra of this region had taken a initiative in the year 2011 to conserve rain water by renovating ponds so as to harvest and recycle the rain water under the project ‘National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture’ (NICRA). Information on different aspect of livelihood status of farmers was collected from Khagribari village, Cooch Behar, West Bengal before and after renovating of the pond. Information collected before initiation and after implementation of the NICRA programme was statistically analyzed separately for pond owners and adjacent farmers to find out whether pond renovation programme has any significant effect in changing the livelihood status of pond owner and adjacent farmers. It is found from the study that renovation of pond had significantly impact on increasing potato, wheat and fish production and farmers net income generation.