Farm pond as response to climate change

Manu Moudgil

Climate change can be as big as the world and as local as your backyard. In North India, it manifests mainly through erratic rainfall. In Punjab and Haryana, the unseasonal downpour in March damaged crops over 55.5 lakh acre while the monsoon season saw a deficit of around 35 per cent. Data shows that the two states have consistently registered below normal rainfall since 1998, putting immense strain on the groundwater resource. The erratic weather has also been linked to the whitefly outbreak which damaged the current cotton crop. 

Last year, the rainfall deficit was over 50 per cent and Punjab had asked for a Central assistance of Rs 2,350 crore due to a 15 per cent rise in irrigation cost. The state bought extra power and the farmers extra diesel to extract groundwater. Deepening of dried-up borewells was another expense. All this adds to the input cost of cultivation, leading to farm distress and suicides. On the pollution front, groundwater pumping in India contributes 16-25 million tonne carbon, which is 4-6 per cent of the country’s total emission. 

Traditionally, North India was gifted with rich soil and sufficient rainfall, besides large riverine regions which nurtured the crops. Monsoonal flood would be diverted into small reservoirs for later use. Dug wells filled the gap in dry season. 

Introduction of new technology to pump out groundwater in 1960s helped in expansion of the irrigated area. Thanks to easier availability of groundwater, crops got drought-proof, resulting in a rise in crop production and farm income. But the declining water table has now set the reverse trend in motion. Most blocks of Haryana and Punjab are in the dark zones and yield low-quality water, impacting crop production.

In fact, the deteriorating groundwater quality is also making people migrate to better-off areas, a rerun of times when tribes moved in search of water.

At Sandharsi village in Patiala district, many original inhabitants have sold off their lands and migrated to other areas of Punjab in search of better water and soil. 

Here, the good quality groundwater is available at a depth of over 1,000 feet, which only a local distillery has been able to access. Farmers make do with water at 600 feet but that impacts productivity. Former sarpanch Surinder Singh gave up farming after his all four borewells failed. He is now growing eucalyptus trees, running the family flour mill and selling milk. 

But Sandharsi also has farmers who refused to be pinned down. When pushed to the wall, they decided to do something more than selling off and leaving. 

Harmesh Singh has two borewells but for six months he relies on a pond spread over half an acre on his farm. Once filled during monsoon, the pond holds over 37 lakh litre, enough to irrigate 13 acre of paddy fields twice. The consumption of diesel for irrigation also drops by one-fifth as the pump needs less power to lift pond water. This is a boon especially when monsoon is delayed and the power supply for irrigation is erratic. In case of heavy rain, the pond again cushions the impact of flooding. 

The idea has also spread to neighbouring villages and around 15 farmers are known to have ponds in their fields in this area, thus reducing the constant dependence on government subsidy and the bore rig industry for irrigation. 

What’s more important is that the initiative has come from individual farmers without any push from the government or non-governmental organisations. 

Ask Harmesh, one of the first to dig a farm pond, about how he got the idea, and he responds with another question: “Isn’t it common sense that a farm pond will help with irrigation?” Sadly, this common sense has become a rarity. 

Ponds and wells had always been the lifeline of Indian agriculture. As groundwater became accessible, these long-serving companions were encroached upon overnight and were filled up to increase the cropped area. Today, dug wells are beyond redemption as water levels have receded to great depths. But ponds are still valid and irrigating fields in many parts of the country. In fact, they are more valid in present times of erratic rainfall patterns. 

Lessons can also be learnt from Dewas district in Madhya Pradesh, which turned almost barren as borewells started failing. Today, 5,000 ponds in the district irrigate two crops a year. The movement, inspired by a single farmer digging a pond in his fields, got support from the state agriculture department, which started holding training sessions for large farmers who owned tractors and could afford to excavate ponds. Around 600 such ponds were dug without any financial support from the government. 

Later, a subsidy was announced to take the initiative to small and marginal farmers. The chance of fake beneficiaries was little as the big farmers had already got ponds for themselves. The water harvesting structures also helped raise the groundwater table, thus reviving many a defunct borewell which had dried out.

In Marathwada, the region facing continuous drought, the Maharashtra government has now launched a farm pond scheme on a large scale to permanently deal with scarcity. 

The Centre, on its part, has formed a committee to suggest restructuring of the Central Groundwater Board and Central Water Commission. The main purpose is to hasten the process of aquifer mapping and irrigation reforms to reduce dependence on an increasingly erratic monsoon. While aquifer mapping will quantify the country’s groundwater, irrigation reforms are meant for last-mile connectivity through decentralised water harvesting like farm ponds and check dams, besides water-efficient irrigation technologies like sprinklers and drip systems. 

But instead of looking for government schemes, can the farmers themselves take up farm ponds? The few farmers at Sandharsi and surrounding villages are testimony to the resilience that comes with independent initiatives. Instead of doling out subsidy schemes, the state government can organise field visits for farmers to Sandharsi and Dewas. Farmers can spare a few bighas to collect rainwater, which will also recharge the defunct borewells. 

It’s not a quick task but not as costly and distressing as deepening of a borewell every few years. Many commentators appreciate how Punjab and Haryana always have green fields no matter the amount of rainfall. They don’t acknowledge rumblings of the vault down under, and the carbon footprint that comes with groundwater pumping. Farm ponds will not only make this region water sufficient in the true sense but also reduce emissions, thus serving as both a climate change adaptation and mitigation measure. 

The writer is a consultant with India Water Portal, a knowledge repository on water and sanitation