Socio-Economic Impact of Farm Pond in Enhancing the Livelihood of Farming Community of Maharashtra

The study revealed that due to the availability of protective irrigation facility from farm pond the majority of Kharif and Rabi crops showed increase in average productivity viz., pigeonpea (34.38%) and green gram (20.35%) while Rabi crops wheat (30.16%), Rabi sorghum(27.44% ) and gram (19.67 % ). Whereas in case of vegetables it was increased by 13.20 per cent . The change in cropping intensity revealed that the gross cropped area increased by 8.41 per cent after construction of farm ponds. The cropping intensity was 106.11 per cent whereas after construction of farm ponds it was 115.03 per cent. The per cent change in cropping intensity was observed as 8.91 per cent to the base year. As for as Kharif crops are concerned there were no much change in area. However, the per cent change in total Rabi crops area was relatively more after construction of farm ponds. The area under Rabi sorghum, wheat, gram and vegetable crops (tomato, chilli, brinjal) were increased by (60.68%), (27.60%), (8.26 %) and (3.66) per cent to the total Rabi area, respectively. The gross cropped area was increased which may help farmers to bring more area under Rabi crops. Moreover, the availability of water in farm ponds had resulted in diversification of the cropping pattern with the substitution of more profitable crops. Therefore, in order to bring fallow land under cultivation and to increase cropping intensity, farmers need to be encouraged to follow adoption of farm pond technology in changing cropping intensity which may help the beneficiary for the socio-economic upliftment. After the construction of farm ponds majority (27.85%) of beneficiary farmers were having their annual income in range of Rs. 225001 to Rs. 300000/- followed by (27.14%) beneficiaries found in the category of Rs.300001 and above. The per cent change in annual income was 17.11 per cent. The independent variables viz., land holding, area under protective irrigation, risk preference and extension contact showed positive and highly significant relationship with overall impact of farm pond. The constraints such as farm pond sedimentation followed by disturbances of cow, pet and wild animals, with regard to getting subsidy’s, unawareness about farm pond scheme, high rate of evapotranspiration during summer season, large area in hectares of productive land goes under farm pond construction were expressed by the farming community.