Economic feasibility of renovating a water harvesting structure with package and practices of cultivation in Shivaliks – A case study of Himachal Pradesh Singh Surinder, Tiwari A.K., Bhattacharyya P.*, Singh Pratap Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute, Research Centre-Chandigarh. *Present address: CRRJ. Cuttack. Abstract To study the economic feasibility of rainwater harvesting structures in Shivaliks, one village pond of 2 ha-m capacity was renovated with proper irrigation network at village Mandhala, District Solan, Himachal Pradesh. Ten hectare of land was brought under supplemental irrigation and crop diversification index of the area increased from 0 to 418 during rabi (winter) season. The net return of Rs. 9,25,450 was obtained during three years of time (2003–05) against the expenditure of Rs. 8,70,717 for developing water resources. Besides, about 7271 man-days employment was generated as indirect benefit due to water resource development and implementation of improved crop production technologies. The cost of water storage in the renovated water harvesting structure was found to be Rs. 28.5 m−3, whereas, a net return of Rs. 38.2 m−3 was obtained by utilizing the stored water for irrigation to the crops during three years period of the study. Top Keywords Diversification Index, Economic feasibility, Net return, Shivalik region, Water harvesting structure. Top |