Economic Evaluation of Lined Rainwater Harvesting Tanks for Improving Productivity of Hill Farming Systems Samuel Manoj P.a, Sarangi S. K.b, Singh R. K.c, Ngachan S. V.c aNational Academy of Agricultural Research Management, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad – 500 030, Andhra Pradesh bCentral Soil Salinity Research Institute, Regional Research Station, Canning Town – 743 329, West Bengal cICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Barapani – 793 103, Meghalaya Online published on 9 October, 2012. Abstract The study is based on a water harvesting system introduced in the hilly terrains of North-Eastern Hill region of India (800–1300 msl) by excavating two tanks and lining them with two different types of ultraviolet radiation-resistant multi-layered plastic films, namely of nylon and cross-laminated silpaulin, in the livestock and the agrihorti-silvi-pastoral farming systems, respectively. The main objectives of the study were to develop cost-effective rain water storage system, conjunctive use of stored water resources to improve the productivity of crops and livestock and to find the financial viability of the storage system for sustainability. The study has revealed that due to availability of irrigation water, the yield of food and fodder crops increased significantly and thereby milk production also enhanced. The introduction of rainwater harvesting system has led to a substantial increase in the farm profit. It has also been observed that the plastic lining of rainwater harvesting tanks, which has low investment per unit volume of harvested water, helped in reducing the seepage loss to the minimum. Based on the estimated annual costs and returns, all the financial viability criteria (IRR, NPV and BCR) have been found favourable and affordable to farmers for investment on plastic-lined water harvesting tank integrated with mixed farming systems. Top Keywords Rainwater harvesting, plastic lining, water-use efficiency, farming system, financial viability. Top |