Harvesting Of Rainfall
(Water harvesting or Run off Farming in Rainfed Agriculture)
About 10 – 20 percent of the total rain goes as runoff in medium deep black soils. This also considerable soil loss by way of erosion. The extent of runoff varies with rainfall intensity and its duration land topography soil type and land use pattern. This runoff otherwise going as waste can be collected in suitable water storage structures such as farm ponds and used further for crop production. This technique of collection of runoff water during the period or excess rainfall and its further use for crop production is called "water harvesting" or "Runoff farming". Such collected water is used to provide supplemental irrigation to the crops at the most critical growth stages or during the prolonged period of drought.
In water harvesting the part of land from which the water is received is called "donor area" or "water producing area" or water harvesting area or watershed area or catchments area and the area in which it is used is called as "Recipient area" or crop production area. The donor area generally is not suitable for crop production.