Rainwater Harvesting for Productivity Enhancement of Degraded Coastal Areas

Abstract

The great challenge in the near future will be the task of increasing food production with less water from the available land. The situation was worsened in Andaman island due to the intrusion of sea water during tsunami which made the soil condition unfavorable for immediate crop cultivation. Hence, in the present study an attempt was made to evaluate the impact of broad bed and furrow system in harvesting rainwater and improving the water productivity at farmers field in the degraded coastal areas. The results showed that the system can harvest and store nearly 4476 m3 ha-1 of rainwater. Under island conditions 67 % of the rainfall was used by the crops while 14% and 19 % were lost in the form of evaporation and deep percolation respectively. The system also provided ample scope for crop diversification and the cropping intensity increased upto 190 – 220 %. The water productivity was high at 47.36 Rs/m3. The integration of crops along with fish in the BBF will ensure increased farm income and sustainable livelihood security in coastal degraded areas.