Micro Management of Groundwater in Banaskantha, North Gujarat An Operational Strategy

1. Micro Management of Groundwater in Banaskantha, North GujaratAn Operational Strategy M Dinesh Kumar International Water Management Institute

2. Groundwater in North Gujarat • North Gujarat: one of the most water scarce regions in India • Per capita renewable water availability—427 M3/annum • Enormous increase in groundwater withdrawal in the region during past 4 decades; mainly for irrigated farming • Groundwater is lifeline of north Gujarat: human survival, crops (92% of irrigation); dairying, and fragile ecology

3. Groundwater Problems in the Region • Aquifers are fast drying up due to excessive pumping • Water quality is severely deteriorating--TDS, fluorides • CGWB warns: if pumping continues at the current rate, the aquifers around Palanpur will be dried up in next 5 years

4. Impact of the Problems • Depletion of groundwater causes irrigation & drinking water scarcity, and ecological degradation; threatens sustainability of rural livelihoods • Currently shift from conventional farming to dairy farming • Large scale trade of dry fodder, seasonal and daily migration to neighbouring urban centres

5. Sustainable Groundwater Management Initiative in Banaskantha • IWMI’s action research project on community-based local groundwater management explores and experiments a variety of local options that would address: • Supply & demand side issues in water management • Analyze their impacts on hydrological regimes and livelihoods

6. Evolving Strategies for Micro Management • To evolve viable strategies and to identify ways to operationalize them, IWMI carried out a number of activities in the field during the past one year • Socioeconomic studies in pilot area: to analyze the water supply & land use systems; hydrological regimes • Demonstration of various water saving irrigation devices: mini spriklers; micro sprinklers; micro tube drips; Family Drip Systems; pressurized overhead sprinklers • Market research on adoption of water saving technologies • Research on farmers’ fields on water saving & productivity impacts of different irrigation devices

7. Constraints and Opportunities for Micro management of Groundwater • High inter-annual variability in rainfall and runoff • Good storage potential in depleted aquifers for recharge • Majority of farmers are small and marginal; do not have independent source of well irrigation and pressurizing systems • For many farmers in the region, electricity supply is a limiting factor for groundwater pumping; for a few water is limited • Farmers have very poor knowledge of many new irrigation devices; many misconceptions as well about their adaptability to their conditions • Economic gain is the most important consideration for farmers to go for water saving technologies; not water saving • Several of water saving devices help improve water productivity significantly apart from reducing water application rates • Reduction in water use rate in irrigation actually lead to saving of water from the system

8. Micro Options for Sustainable Groundwater Management in the Project Area

9. Ecologically Sound and Efficient Water Harvesting • Village ponds need to be redesigned to capture excess runoff that occur during high rainfall years • Recharge tube wells need to be installed so as to take water directly from ponds to the deep aquifers • Ponds should have waste weir for safe disposal of excess water from flash floods

10. Ecologically sound and efficient… • Water from the pond catchments should be made free of human and animal waste to avoid health hazards • Catchments need to be protected and vegetated • In the hilly, hard rock areas, watershed management activities need to be carried out along with check dam building and well recharging

11. Micro Management of Water in Agriculture • Pressurized irrigation system to be promoted among: • Large, resource rich farmers having independent wells, but not able to irrigate the entire field with traditional practices • Farmers with poorly yielding wells; not able to use power supplyfully • Community micro irrigation schemes for small holders to reduce the overhead costs and maintenance of micro irrigation systems

12. Micro management of.. Energy overheads are more with conventional systems when adopted for small plots; so land productivity Needs to be enhanced to make Micro irrigation viable • Organic farming practices are to be adopted among adopters of water-saving technologies to improve land and water use productivity • Drip Irrigation for Alfalfa: Family Drip Systems being promoted by Netafim can be used by both, water buyers and well owners and tube well partners

13. Micro Management of... • Customerised micro tube drips will be suitable for small and marginal farmers; water buyers and well partners • Sub-surface irrigation systems could be used for irrigating alfalfa, and row crops, viz., cotton, fennel, castor and potato. In spite of the fact that they are expensive, during droughts regular water buyers and partners of tube wells would have economic incentive to go for this system

14. IWMI’s Future Strategies for Local Groundwater Management in Banaskantha

15. Fountainhead of the Strategy • Benefits of increased yield rather than water saving • Improve the level of awareness about the gravity of water problems, and different water saving technologies & devices • Remove the misconceptions about certain water saving technologies • Provide choices to the farmers, in terms of technology, costs etc., to save water and improve productivity • Demonstrate the benefits of group investments in water saving devices • Orient farmers about new technologies; provide right kind of training to the adopters

16. Operationalizing the Strategy • Promotion of Water Ethics • Development of communication materials on water—slide shows, video films, posters, pamphlets • Implementation of communication programme: Jal Abhiyan, Awareness Training programmes in villages, schools, taluka head quarters • Enhancing technical input services to adopters

17. Operationalizing …. • Market Promotion of Water-Saving Technologies • Training of rural marketing professionals • Direct field to field marketing of products • Field demonstrations • Establishing a supply chain • Educational programmes: trainings, exposure trips • Implementation of model projects on ecologically sound water harvesting • Networking; research and monitoring

18. Thank You…!