Water harvesting pond and recycling for sustainable crop production in doubling income in Kandhamal district of Odisha, India

A trial was conducted during 2007 to 2009 at All India Coordinated Research Project for Dry land Agriculture Phulbani, Odisha, India., with an objective to obtain the water loss and economics of the lined ponds .There were three treatments T1-Lined pond with soil cement plaster (6:1) 8cm thickness, T2-Unlined pond, T3-No pond.10% of the cropped area was dug for construction of the pond in Lined and Unlined pond treatments. The size of the pond is 7m top widths, 1m-bottom width, 3m heights, and 1:1side slope. The water loss was 17 lit/day/m 2 in lined pond and 831 lit/day m 2 in unlined pond. Provision of dugout pond in 10 % area of the plot at the downstream side with 8 cm thickness soil cement plaster (6:1) gave 41% higher cauliflower equivalent yield compared to no pond. The B:C ratio was found to be 2.25 in lined pond. The light textured well-drained upland soils in North Eastern Ghat Zone provide scope for cultivation of vegetables during rainy season. Harvesting of this run-off water in farm pond with proper lining will conserve the run-off water and recycling of this water for lifesaving irrigation will protect the crop from drought/dry spell grown in 90% of land area. The ponds will be helpful for sustainability in productivity of dry land crops. Soil structure and organic matter status decide the water holding capacity of the soil. Keeping those points in view, the present experiment involving two water management systems (no pond and pond) has been designed.