Chapter-I

INTRODUCTION
India is an Agricultural based country and farming is the
main occupation of people. More than 70 per cent people are dependent
upon the farming. Due to erratic behavior of monsoon, farming is not
economical without the facility of irrigation. Irrigation has great
importance in agriculture. In India the total cultivable land is 139.36 m ha
out of this 37.64 m ha is under irrigation i.e. 27% (Michal 1991). In
Maharashtra total cultivable land is 22.5 m ha and 3.37 m ha is under
irrigation i.e. 15.21% (statistical information of Maharashtra 1997-98),
out of which 0.22 m ha, is irrigated by means of ponds. In Maharashtra
during last five year, the Government has made provision of subsidy for
the construction of farm ponds for supplemental irrigation. Farm pond is
more suitable for enhancing the crop productivity.
The importance of farm pond is increasing greatly in recent
years.

Farm ponds are small tank reservoir and are constructed to

supply water for irrigation, livestock, home use and fish production.
These also used for head water, flood control and increasing ground
water table.
In broad sense, the farm ponds are divided in following two
general categories 1) Embankment type and 2) Excavated or dug out
type.
Embankment type farm ponds are generally constructed
across the stream or watercourse. A site having depression and gentle to
moderate slope is best suited for construction and maximum storage
volume with least earthwork.
Excavated or dugout type farm ponds are constructed by
excavating the soil from ground, relatively in level areas. The depth of

pond is decided on basis of its desired capacity which obtained by

excavation. It is used where a small supply of water is required.
The farm ponds are also divided into two types i.e. spring or
creck fed and stream storage pond depending upon the source of water
available for feeding them.
Farm ponds are needed due to following reasons:
1)

Current progress in the agricultural technologies has opened up

new opportunities for the farm pond which can be exploited within
assured availability of water.
2)

Ground availability is poor in many areas due to absence of

aquifers and occurrence of hard rock. Farm pond is helpful in ground

water recharge.
3)

Farm pond is better cost effective as compared to large scale canal

irrigation.
4)

Individual farmers owning to farm ponds have full control on water

supply regarding timings and quantity of application.

5)

It improves the productivity of rainfed area due to assured supply

of water.
In the last four-five years, due to erratic behavior of
monsoon, farmers from dry land areas of Maharashtra particularly from
Vidarbha and Marathwada are facing the problem of low crop
productivity, which is affecting their economic condition. Ensuring the
availability of water for supplemental irrigation in dry land farming through
farm pond, could be the best option for increasing the crop productivity.
The

Maharashtra

state

Government

has

launched

the

various

programme of construction of farm ponds for runoff water harvesting,

which could not only be useful for supplemental irrigation but also of
ground water recharge.

The scientific evaluation of farm ponds need to be done for

the point of its site selection, size and capacity. Keeping in this view, the
present investigation is planned with following objectives.
1) To study the existing dimensions of the farm ponds.
2) To study the sites selected for the farm pond.
3) Determine the capacity of farm ponds.