Dr. R.C. SrivastavaPrincipal Scientist, Directorate of Water Management,

Bhubaneswar, & Ex-Director, Central Agricultural Research Instt, Port Blair

Preambles Sustainable management of natural resources requires

optimal management of land and water resources

Efficient and economic use of water: an important factor in improving livelihood

Water systems ; Evaluated in terms of their ability to provide

water for crop production Valued in terms of the ‘crop per drop’ produced

Low prices of major crops produced on irrigation systems do not lead to substantial increase in overall economic and livelihood scenario of the people

Logical to integrate appropriate farming practices to enhance water productivity through multiple use of water leading to a shift from ‘crop per drop’ to a more holistic concept of ‘food per drop’.

Usage of water only for single purpose can no longer sustain the high cost of creation and management as well as meet the demand of different sectors

Intensification of multiple use has implications for downstream flow

both in terms of quality and quantity

Developing technologies and strategies that accommodate different user groups without hampering the rights of downstream users remains a major challenge for improving the overall productivity, as well as equity of water use

Objective

Look to available technologies, different constraints in up-scaling of technologies and strategies for refining design and implementation to harness the huge socio economic potential of multiple use system

Constraints in design and implementation

Social impediments (religious feelings, poaching especially at remotely located ponds, theft, local conflicts in case of community water bodies or open access water bodies and water rights)

Pereniality of water availability in the streams and water bodies

Mortality of fish fry due to change in environment, intrusion of snakes and carnivorous fishes

Loss of natural fish feed (planktons) due to excessive water flow

Lack of capital investment and resources in developing the system, provision of aeration & mixing specially for resource poor and socially disadvantaged section of rural population

Lack of awareness, technical know-how and technical and institutional support

Lack of multiple use systems and technologies for different bio-physical, agro-ecological and socio-economic conditions and crop – livestock – fish – enterprise combinations

Innovations required to overcome constraints

Water harvesting system Canal water Ground water Waterlogged areas

Water Harvesting Systems Near homestead (for good management

practices)

Far off from homestead (Poor management practices and suffer from poaching)

Located in highly permeable soils (water don’t last beyond monsoon season)

Near homestead WHSCombination of aquaculture + horticulture (both fruits

and vegetables) on embankment+ duck raising + rudimentary livestock raising + irrigation

Constraint

Drying up of water by Feb-March

Results

Reduces growth period of fish and overall productivity

Water

water

Fruit trees

Water

Fruit trees

aquaculture

Duck raising

Lined tank

Small scale Vegetable cultivation

CreeperVegetable onslopes

CreeperVegetable on slopes

Fig. 2 Schematic diagram of multiple use system based on lined tank on top areas of watershed in hills and plateau areas

Water for domestic use & livestock

Options for enhancing the growth period

Enhance the capacity of tank by increasing the depth (high rainfall areas )

Construction of lined small adjunct reservoir along with the main tank

Multi-tank multi-well based irrigation system The overall economics of use of water from well

for continued aquaculture and duck rearing should be compared with summer crop cultivation

Table fishIn Dec.-Jan

Frylings in August

Fingerlings in Dec-Jan

Stunted Fingerlings in July

Runoff pond

Adjunct tank

Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of adjunct tank system for intensive aquaculture

WHS (away from homestead) Makhana (Euryle ferox) and Water

Chestnut (Trapa bispinosa) crops suitable for Eastern India

Aquaculture with specific type of fishes can be integrated with these crops

A suitable system both in terms of design as well as cultivation practices need to be developed

Canal water Design of floating cage for controlled aquaculture in large water bodies

(CIFA,BBSR)

Multiple uses below the outlet in plateau areas An adjunct service reservoir connected to the outlet and then a network of

pipes for conveyance of water will ensure highly improved irrigation efficiency Conveyance efficiency below outlet is 75% with unlined field channels and a

pipe network will improve it to 95-100%( Srivastava et al (2005)) Integrating aquaculture, duck rearing and horticultural crops

Multiple use planning can ensure not only additional returns but also improved irrigation efficiency

Another View of Papaya

Lateral used for irrigation

Harvesting of fish from pond

View of Ducks in the Reservoir

Area between two rivers

River

RiverRunoff

Sluice gate

Sluice gate

Embankment

Embankment

Depressions will be formed due to construction of embankment

DepressionGround water is saline

Fig. 3 Schematic diagram of reclamation of waterlogged land between tworivers in mouth of delta

Fruits, fodder trees and pasture grass on embankments

Fish and ducks in depressions

SAUCER SHAPED AREA

Semi deep water rice

< 0.25m

0.25-0.5m

0.5-0.75

0.75m-1.0m

>1.0m

Semi DeepWaterrice

Deep water rice

Chestnut etc.Makhana

Lowland riceSluice gate

Cage aquaculture

Aquaculture

Duckery

Fig. 4 Schematic diagram of reclamation of saucer shaped waterlogged area

Groundwater Multiple use of pumped ground water (ICAR,

RCER Patna)

Design parameters for the service reservoir, automation in terms of erratic electricity supply and overall economics

Design parameters vary for alluvium aquifers and hard rock aquifers in view of difference in yield of well

Technologies for multiple purposes

Increasing farm productivity/production without any net increase in water consumption

Enabling diversification in higher value crops, including aquatic species

Enabling utilization of otherwise wasted on-farm resources

Reduction in net environmental impacts of semi-intensive farming practices

Ensuring diversification of risk, self-employment, flow of income throughout the year

Satisfying the needs of various sectors with limited water availability

Water rights, conflicts and solutions

Reallocation to take care of efficiency and fundamental issue of equity

Delineation of water rights is further complicated when we take into consideration multiple uses as well as multiple users

The demands of multiple users may be in conflict both in terms of quantity and time

Require a separate understanding of the problem and

probably an innovative solution

ConclusionThe technology for multiple use systems are more or less standardized for

research farm conditions for different water domains

Designs require fine tuning and large scale field testing under different agro-ecological socio-economic and management level conditions, before they are recommended for wide-spread adoption

Further water rights scenario need to be tackled to take care of conflicting

interests both in terms of quantity and quality of downstream water The implementation of the multiple use system will require efforts on two

counts, first to integrate them in existing resources and second to modify the design of future projects to make them suitable for multiple use

Thanks