Farm Ponds for Climate-Resilient Rainfed Agriculture

This article summarizes the utility of farm pond technology as an adaptation strategy to overcome water shortage due to several reasons, including climate change. This technology has the potential to increase availability of water for supplemental irrigation, increase in cropped area and productivity leading to increase in net returns from crops. Farm pond offers a solution to overcome the increased frequencies of drought, particularly mid-season and terminal drought under climate change scenario. The article advocates for policy intervention to promote one pond for each farm holding having an area of 2.0 ha at individual farm level or on community-sharing basis. Constraints for large-scale implementation of farm pond technology are also discussed.