Farmers' Irrigation Practices Under Rod Kohi Irrigation System

1 ABSTRACT: Farmers' irrigation practices under the Rod Kohi Irrigation System (hill torrents) were studied through socio-economic survey of 22 respondents and field investigations of 5 selected farms. The major problems and constraints of the system included inequity of water availability among users of the commands, construction of excessively large check structures incurring high cost to the farmers, lack of manpower and machinery, low literacy rate, poor economic resources and inefficient use of water. Data regarding the soil, crop and applied irrigation were gathered through field observations on respondents' farms for performance evaluation of irrigation. An average irrigation application efficiency of 27.7% was found. This was probably the first farmer's field oriented study as 95.5% of the respondents denied of any field survey conducted before the reported study. Approximately 73% of the respondents of the Rod Kohi Irrigation System were uneducated. About 55% of the respondents had the farming experience of 21-40 years. On average, 64% of the farmers owned a farm size of 12.5 ha. Mostly, the hill torrents occurred twice a year and lasted for 5-10 hrs. About 63% of the respondents expressed that the hill torrent flow was sufficient to satisfy the crop needs. The average yield of sorghum, gram, bajra, oilseed and wheat was found 564.4, 575.6, 519.5, 561.6 and 1229.9 kg/ha, respectively. The water productivity of these crops was 0.067, 0.070, 0.063, 0.075 and 0.161 kg/m 3 , respectively. The hill torrent (Rod Kohi Irrigation) water productivity was quite lower than that achieved in irrigated areas.