Water Budgeting (WB) approach is geared towards ensuring optimum, equitable and most efficient use of water. This involves gaining an understanding of water availability, a community's existing needs and requirements of water, crop planning based on water availability, optimizing irrigation, equitable sharing of water, and considered decisions on ground water withdrawals. which constitutes your current balance. When you acquire knowledge money saved in your account on basics of money spending from your guardians, you learn the rule 'Money saved is money gained. Once you plan your cash flow, understand how much comes in; you can successfully keep a track of how much goes out. And a bank assists you to do just that. Water - budgeting works on the basic principles of banking. Methodology for Water Budgeting Farmers were educated on how they can measure and manage the groundwater level. Bore- wells and dug-wells are monitored using different methods. Monthly data collection is conducted to track the groundwater fluctuations during the year and to analyze the trend in water availability. The data so assimilated is exhibited publicly in villages for everyone's easy access to the information. How does this information help farmers? As per the accumulated data regarding groundwater level, every farmer can adjust her/ his crop and irrigation plan to A sun-sensitive plant can, the prevalent water availability. for example, benefit from This ensures cultivation without the shade of a bigger plant; losing half of the yield to water thus helping the farmer most shortage. effectively to achieve a better yield at the end of the season. In order to prevent water wastage, we promote micro- irrigation and offer financial support for the same. Micro- irrigation techniques can be simple such as drip irrigation, sprinklers or advanced, such as subsurface drip irrigation. An alternative method applied is intercropping. Intercropping involves planting two or more varieties of plant species next to each other on the field. The plants chosen are such that they benefit from each other's presence in the same patch of land. Yet another technique to promote water saving is composting. You might wonder about the relationship between composting and water budgeting. Composting increases the infiltration of water and decreases the evaporation rate. It increases the water retention capacity of soil by up to 60%. This method comes very handy to reduce 'water loss' as water lost from the soil through evaporation or irrigation is unavailable to humans. Installations of water level indicators The idea behind the Water Budgeting initiative is to help rural communities use the existing water in an equitable, optimal and most efficient way. The first step is to identify the water availability and requirements on an individual as well as village level. Next is coming up with suggestions for changes in irrigation practices, crop planning and groundwater withdrawals to ensure the availability of water for all planned activities. One of the practical difficulties that farmers face while measuring the total amount of available water is the calculation of water in bore- wells at any given time of the year. To address this difficulty, water level indicator instruments were installed that let farmers measure the groundwater level in bore- wells across the year. The information on groundwater levels at various times of the year helps them to decide Installaiton of groundwater level indicator in Bhojdari village what crops to grow and when as well as plan an appropriate irrigation schedule. Trainings were conducted at three bore- wells in Bhojdari village for farmers to understand the working mechanism and operation of the instrument. How tha machine works? The water level instrument has an indicator cable with an inbuilt sensor. To measure the groundwater level in bore-wells the cable is lowered down the bore-wells. Once it touches water, a beep sound goes off and a red light starts blinking. That is when you stop lowering the indicator cable. The cable carries yellow markings showing depth in feet and white marks showing it in inches. The reading marked on the indicator cable at the surface of the bore well indicates the level of groundwater from the surface. While conducting water budgeting exercise, this machine helps us calculate the groundwater stock. It is also very useful in knowing the time required for refilling the bore- wells. "I use water level indicator for my bore-well. This assists me to track the increase and decrease in the ground water level. Once I know the water availability, I can decide upon which crops to grow in Kharif, Rabi as well as summer. I also can estimate the time taken to replenish my 425 ft. deep bore-well. This helps me choose crops when less water is available to make some profit. I measure groundwater level at an interval of 15 days." - SUDAM, A FARMER IN BHOJDARI, MAHARASHTRA. Source: WOTR website Excerpts from article by Aditi Wagh and Harshal Khade