Kshipra Sub Basin - Asian Development Bank

Support to the National Water Mission NAPCC
Appendix 3 Kshipra Sub Basin
increased temperature causing more evaporation. It is reported that there is less rainfall in the recent
years except for some villages in Indore. Stakeholders mostly believe that climate change will have
perceptible impact on their livelihood through its effect on agricultural production, human health and
livestock population. The main areas of vulnerability of climate change is seen to be the agricultural
sector and drinking water.
1. Perceived Water Management Issues and Possible Solutions
100. Communities identified a wide number of possible mechanisms to enhance future resilience and
reduce future vulnerabilities, these include:
o Enhanced access to drinking and irrigation water was considered of the highest priority;
drinking water access was first priority by women groups.
o Tank irrigation was seen to be very important. There is widespread support for the
enhancement of the depth of the irrigation tanks (talav) and construction of new tanks. Poor
maintenance of tanks is an issue, tanks are supposed to be taken care of by the government.
There is no water users‘ association (WUA) for the tank command area in surveyed villages.
Subsidies for micro tank irrigation are already exist. Desilting of rivers and tanks is considered
important; silt material can be used for road construction.
o The river linking process may be explored more. Some people have argued that Kshipra
should be linked with Narmada and Khan rivers.
o Drip irrigation should be supported by creating more awareness amongst cultivators; the
subsidy for micro irrigation is important; the present subsidy mechanisms limit this to some
farmers only. The level of awareness of the farmers is very low about the new technologies,
and the slow take up is reported to be due to the lack of awareness. In Dewas, some farmers
have expressed doubt about the use of sprinkler for agriculture. In general most of the farmers
have supported the use of new technologies. Some big farmers have adopted sprinkler
irrigation in their own initiative, but the technology needs to be improved for greater use in the
agricultural fields. There is a need for improved training and subsidy on sprinkler an drip
irrigation. Farmers showed some support for pipe irrigation for surface water, two problems
are: (i) the cost of irrigation pipe is very high and (ii) the river dries up in the rabi season.
o It was considered that recharging of groundwater for each farmer should be made compulsory
for the farmers, roof top rain water harvesting should be made compulsory. Farmers are very
supportive of artificial recharge, if the subsidy is provided,
o More plantation of trees which will not only improve the soil conservation, but also increase
recharge potential. There is huge scope of improving water position through National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). It is not working at all in the village because of some
lapses in the policy. There is much delay in the payment. The NREGA policy of not using of
machineery is causing strain to the labourers for digging because of the hard rock of the
region. In Dewas, villagers have supported check dams on river Kshipra and Tillar.
o Water quality; water should be treated properly before it is being released into the river.
o Lack of dependable electric power is seen as a major issue in all the districts. People get
generally get 5-6 hours of intermittent electricity in a day. Farmers are of the view that charges
for electricity are already very high. Subsidy on electricity is not an issue rather farmers are
interested in subsidy on other inputs which is leading to cost escalation and interested in
direct subsidy coming to farmers.
o Support Price: there is a confusion among farmers that there is no support price for soyabean,
which is the major Kharif crop in all the districts. Even though there is support price for wheat,
farmers are compelled to sell it to the private traders in the market because of the delayed
payments from Government. The farmers want support price for vegetables.
o Regulations on groundwater: there is still no regulation for groundwater use. Farmers have a
mixed feeling in this issue. Some farmers feel that even without regulation they will use that
much of water, which is needed. Others feel that regulation is needed to restrict
overexploitation.
o Agriculture: Farmers are supportive of short duration crops if the yield is some, not all farmers
are using short duration crops because of the non accessibility. Farmers have a mixed feeling
of these short duration and high yield crops because high value cash crops with requirement
of more water, which is not feasible in the region. Farmers, in fact have abandoned the
sugarcane cultivation and cotton cultivation for this reason. Because of the topography of the
regions, farmers argue that there is no necessity of laser levelling.
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