Impact Assessment of Indigenous Field-Level Water Storage Structure (Diggi) on Agriculture in the Great Indian Desert

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-750834/v1

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Impact Assessment of Indigenous Field-Level Water Storage Structure (Diggi) on Agriculture in the Great Indian Desert

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-750834/v1

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In the arid region of Rajasthan, India, it is very often a challenge to store rain/surface water for year-round use by human and livestock. The inhabitants of this desert area have developed several water storage structures, which they used to construct based on their indigenous knowledge of local terrain conditions. Recently, farmers living in the lower command areas of Indira Gandhi canal have constructed micro-farm water storage structures, called diggi, in their cropland. They store allocated canal water in diggi to timely utilize it as per irrigation requirements, and thus, done away with problems of deficit and untimely canal water supply. This impact assessment study, carried out in Poogal tehsil of Bikaner district, analyzed high-resolution satellite images of two years and used geographic information system to quantify diggi structures and studied the diggi-growth interactions with changing rainfall pattern as well as land use/land cover. Results showed that during 2018, about 3243 number of structures were constructed compared to 241 existed during 2004-05. The mean annual rainfall increased by 30% and crop area by 12772 ha during the same period that included 7.86% increase in irrigated and 2.98% in rainfed croplands. Thus, diggi based water management has been immensely helpful in the perspective of irrigated agriculture in the desert region.

Environmental Engineering

Environmental Policy

Diggi

Micro-farm water storage structures

Indigenous system

Irrigated agriculture

Remote sensing and geographic information system

western Rajasthan

Table 1. Comparative statistics of diggis during 2004 and 2018 in study area

S. No.	Features	2018	2004	Change
1	Number of diggis	3162	241	+2921
2	Cumulative area occupied by diggis (ha)	324	85.94	+238.06

Table 2. Comparative statistics of land use/land cover types in study area during 2004 and 2018

S. No.	Land use/land cover class	Area in 2004		Area in 2018		Change in area
S. No.	Land use/land cover class	ha	%	ha	%	Change in area
1	Agriculture (Irrigated)	25660.10	9.81	46221.30	17.67	20561.20 ha (+7.86%)
2	Agriculture (Un-Irrigated)	5894.08	2.25	13683.20	5.23	7789.12 ha (+2.98 %)
3	Fallow Land	33851.60	12.94	16012	6.12	-17839.7 ha (-6.82 %)
4	Scrub Land	5218.56	1.99	9500.13	3.63	4281.57 ha (+1.64 %)
5	Plantation / Shelterbelt / Forest	2613.61	1.00	1706.07	0.65	-907.54 ha (-0.35 %)
6	Sandy / Dune	184924.00	70.68	169938	64.96	-14986.00 ha (-5.72 %)
7	Water body including Canal	2041.82	0.78	1986.33	0.76	-55.49 ha (-0.02 %)
8	Waterlogged area	645.06	0.25	1011.49	0.39	366.43 ha (+0.14 %)
9	Settlement	774.69	0.30	1564.76	0.60	790.07 ha (+0.3 %)
	Total	261623.52	100	261623.52	100

Table 3. Area, production and productivity of major crops in Bikaner district

Crop	2017-18				2007-08				Increase in cropped area (%)	Increase in irrigated area (%)
Crop	Total crop area (ha)	Irrigated area(ha)	Production (tonnes)	Yield (q.ha^-1)	Total crop area (ha)	Irrigated area(ha)	Production (tonnes)	Yield (q.ha^-1)	Increase in cropped area (%)	Increase in irrigated area (%)
Wheat	108299	108298	271413	25.06	51684	51674	72545	14.04	110	110
Mustard	101331	101324	128813	12.71	42129	42099	24047	5.71	141	141
Gram	255775	242545	234964	9.19	169692	127499	59251	3.49	51	90
Barley	4829	4829	10661	22.08	2295	2295	3765	21.5	110	110
Cumin	9691	9691	4363	4.5	1499	1499	264	1.76	546	546
Moth bean	315913	3727	118950	3.77	283239	1261	68764	2.43	12	196
Groundnut	220552	220547	514095	23.31	51292	51292	109424	21.33	330	330
Clusterbean	709945	100325	272828	3.84	605869	73340	251457	4.15	17	37
Bajra	124373	2190	60140	4.84	207973	4878	96368	4.76	-40	-55

Table 4. Area under rabi crops in Bikaner District

S.No.	Rabi crops	2007-08 (Total area, lakh ha)	2017-18 Total area, lakh ha)	Change Area (%)
1	Cereals	0.53	1.13	113.21
2	Pulses	1.69	2.25	33.14
3	Food grains	2.23	3.68	65.02
4	Oil seed	0.42	1.02	142.86

Source: http://agriculture.rajasthan.gov.in/content/agriculture/en/Agriculture-Department-dep/agriculture-statistics.html (2007-08, 207-18)

Table 5. Land use/land cover change (in hectares) detection matrix

2004 2018	Wet Land / Water Logging	Scrub Land	Sandy / Dune	Plantation / Shelterbelt / Forest	Water body / Canal	Agriculture (Un-irrigated)	Fallow Land	Settlement	Agriculture-Irrigated
Wet Land / Water Logging	454.32	0	0.59	0.06	0	0	0	0	190.07
Scrub Land	454.7	74.53	1331.23	678.17	238.05	201.43	51.16	68.46	2120.95
Sandy / Dune	102.61	739.06	154200	20843.8	165.7	3344.3	130.23	58.4	5337.53
Plantation / Shelterbelt / Forest	0	0	242.47	299.24	1222.72	37.01	55.59	0	756.75
Water body / Canal	0	2.88	139	44.44	42.48	28.89	1708.22	0	76.2
Agriculture-Unirrigated	0	0	1898.2	583.55	0	2594.93	0.16	808.29	8.94
Fallow Land	0	10.01	6793.16	3869.34	24.11	9648.1	18.17	12714.2	775.55
Settlement	0	697.55	67.8	7.79	0	0	0.22	0.78	0.57
Agriculture-Irrigated	0	40.71	5268.12	19891.7	13.45	157.01	22.52	33.43	233.93

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26 Jul, 2021
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Impact Assessment of Indigenous Field-Level Water Storage Structure (Diggi) on Agriculture in the Great Indian Desert

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