Water Harvesting : A Manual for the Design and Construction of Water Harvesting Schemes for Plant Production

Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Water and soil requirements. 3. Rainfall. 4. Design model for catchment: cultivated area ratio. 5. Water harvesting techniques. 6. Husbandry. 7. Socio-economic factors and project management. Appendices. Annotated bibliography.

The manual has been written keeping in view the problems being faced by the technicians and extension workers with practical guidelines on the implementation of water harvesting schemes. The manual is also useful for wider audience, such as rural development specialists and planners.

The main focus of the manual is on simple, field scale systems for improved production of crops, trees and rangeland species in drought prone areas. The manual is also relevant to arid and semi-arid areas in all parts of the world where the basic problem low and erratic rainfall, high rates of runoff, and unreliable food production are similar.

It provides the field worker with selection criteria and detailed technical designs for the various systems, as well as information on field layout and construction. The author has made all efforts to keep the manual a practical working document, using all related material other than text.