Farmers' Perception on Water Management and Land Degradation in the Tail Reach of Western Yamuna Canal Command

A study was undertaken in the tail end command of Western Yamuna Canal Command (WYCC) in Jhajjar district, Haryana,to assess the socio-economic status and coping strategies adopted by farmers under waterlogging and saline environments. Perception on water management and control of problem of waterlogging and salinity of 100 selected farmers is reported in this study. About 85 to 100 per cent of the respondents strongly endorsed that the poor maintenance of irrigation channels, canal siltation and weed growth, seepage from the distributaries and minors and irregular supply of canal water were the major factors responsible for waterlogging and subsequent land degradation in the command area. In all, 85 per cent of the respondents opined about non-existence of any scheme by the government agencies for maintenance of field channels. As coping strategies, farmers manage the problem by cleaning field irrigation channels, creation of open ditch drains, controlled irrigation methods and increasing the seed rate besides green manuring with varying degrees of success. Farmers of the study area also expressed the need for knowledge dissemination mechanism with technology details, funding opportunities and effective and efficient functioning of water user associations besides involvement of all farmers to enhance productivity from irrigated saline environment.