Technical and Institutional Options of Water Harvesting Systems for Climate Change Adaptation in Agriculture

The focus of this paper is on a small water harvesting system that collects excess water runoff during the rainy season, and stores it for agricultural purposes during dry periods. Technical and institutional options and case studies are presented as strategic information for climate change adaptation in drought-prone rainfed areas. The paper provides a technical as well as an institutional analysis of small water harvesting system as strategic adaptation measure for climate change in drought-prone community watersheds. Through modeling studies of weather and runoff, information on the annual water yield for small water harvesting projects was estimated. To assess socioeconomic impact, ten (10) water harvesting systems were surveyed in drought-prone communities. Harvestable water from a small catchment was determined including the amount of soil erosion under various farm management practice and rainfall patterns. Case studies of ten (10) small water harvesting systems show positive results of socioeconomic impacts. Water harvesting for agricultural purposes in this era of climate change is a crucial adaptive strategy to ensure food security and alleviate poverty in the rural areas. Climate change has the most immediate impacts to be felt by rainfed agriculture.