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Assessing impacts of agricultural water interventions in the Kothapally watershed, Southern India

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Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/3824/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hyp.8138
 
Title Assessing impacts of agricultural water interventions in the Kothapally watershed, Southern India
 
Creator Garg, K K
Karlberg, L
Barron, J
Wani, S P
Rockstroma, J
 
Subject Watershed management
 
Description The paper describes a hydrological model for agricultural water intervention in a community watershed at Kothapally in India,
developed through integrated management and a consortium approach. The impacts of various soil and water management
interventions in the watershed are compared to no-intervention during a 30-year simulation period by application of the
calibrated and validated ARCSWAT 2005 (Version 2.1.4a) modelling tool. Kothapally receives, on average, 800 mm rainfall
in the monsoon period. 72% of total rainfall is converted as evaporation and transpiration (ET), 20% is stored by groundwater
aquifer, and 8% exported as outflow from the watershed boundary in current water interventions. ET, groundwater recharge
and outflow under no-intervention conditions are found to be 64, 9, and 19%, respectively. Check dams helped in storing water
for groundwater recharge, which can be used for irrigation, as well minimising soil loss. In situ water management practices
improved the infiltration capacity and water holding capacity of the soil, which resulted in increased water availability by
10–30% and better crop yields compared to no-intervention. Water outflows from the developed watershed were more than
halved compared to no-intervention, indicating potentially large negative downstream impacts if these systems were to be
implemented on a larger scale. On the other hand, in the watershed development program, sediment loads to the streams
were less than one-tenth. It can be concluded that the hydrological impacts of large-scale implementation of agricultural water
interventions are significant. They result in improved rain-fed agriculture and improved productivity and livelihood of farmers
in upland areas while also addressing the issues of poverty, equity, and gender in watersheds. There is a need for case-specific
studies of such hydrological impacts along with other impacts in terms of equity, gender, sustainability, and development at
the mesoscale.
 
Publisher John Wiley & Sons
 
Date 2011
 
Type Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
application/pdf
 
Language en
en
 
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Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/3824/1/HYDROLOGICAL_PROCESSES2011.pdf
http://oar.icrisat.org/3824/4/garg1.pdf
Garg, K K and Karlberg, L and Barron, J and Wani, S P and Rockstroma, J (2011) Assessing impacts of agricultural water interventions in the Kothapally watershed, Southern India. Hydrological Processes. 18pp. ISSN 0885-6087