Improved livelihoods for smallholder farmers LIVELIHOOD ZONES ANALYSIS A tool for planning agricultural water management investments West Bengal Prepared by Rajathat PRASARI, Kolkata, West Bengal, India in consultation with FAO, 2011 About this report The AgWater Solutions Project aimed at designing agricultural water management (AWM) strategies for smallholder farmers in sub Saharan Africa and in India. The project was managed by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and operated jointly with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI) and International Development Enterprise (IDE). It was implemented in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia and in the States of Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal in India. Several studies have highlighted the potential of AWM for poverty alleviation. In practice, however, adoption rates of AWM solutions remain low, and where adoption has taken place locally, programmes aimed at disseminating these solutions often remain a challenge. The overall goal of the project was to stimulate and support successful pro-poor, gender-equitable AWM investments, policies and implementation strategies through concrete, evidence-based knowledge and decision-making tools. The project has examined AWM interventions at the farm, community, watershed, and national levels. It has analyzed opportunities and constraints of a number of small-scale AWM interventions in several pilot research sites across the different project countries, and assessed their potential in different agro-climatic, socio-economic and political contexts. This report was prepared as part of the efforts to assess the potential for AWM solutions at national level. The livelihood zones analysis divides the country in a series of areas where rural people share relatively homogeneous living conditions on the basis of a combination of biophysical and socio-economic determinants. It describes the main sources of livelihood of rural populations (by category of people), their natural resources base, potential and key constraints to development. It analyses the relation between people and water and helps understanding to what extent and how water can be a factor for development. Livelihood Zones analyisis in West Bengal A scenario for AWM interventions Prepared by: Rajarhat PRASARI, Kolkata (India) In consultation with Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome (Italy) i PRASARI is a non-governmental organization, which was established in 2007 and works in the rural development sector. Within less than four years, PRASARI proved its role in improving food sufficiency in southern West Bengal in Sundarbans. PRASARI shares part of its success with local Panchayeti Raj Institutions (PRIs), which takes a lead role in some parts of Sunderban. Further, PRASARI has expanded into the northern parts of West Bengal such as Jalpaiguri district where a system of rice Intensification (SRI) has been introduced and promoted. PRASARI believes that small-scale and marginal farmers would be most benefitted by this new intervention. Today PRASARI is the leading organization promoting SRI in the state of West Bengal. PRASARI receives its support from various national funding agencies such as the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT) and has recently begun consultations with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on the potential for Agriculture Water Management (AWM) in India. This document has been prepared by PRASARI in consultation with FAO. Livelihood Zones were identified during the workshop held November 2010 in Kolkata (India). The data used in this document were collected from various government agencies in electronic format and online resources such as government websites. Mailing address: PRASARI 17 B, Bapujinagar, Jadavpur, Kolkata – 92 India [email protected] +91-33-24297935 +91-9836341858 May 2011 ii Contents ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................................................... VII 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. 1 IMPORTANT MAPS OF INDIA ......................................................................................................................... 2 2 BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................................ 3 3. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................. 4 OVERVIEW OF THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL ........................................................................................... 6 POPULATION OF WEST BENGAL ........................................................................................................................... 7 LAND-USE PATTERN IN WEST BENGAL ................................................................................................................... 8 ZONE 1 – DARJEELING .......................................................................................................................... 11 ZONE 2 DARJEELING, KOCH BIHAR, UTTAR DINAJPUR AND JALPAIGURI ................................................. 14 PRODUCTION AND PRODUCTIVITY OF RICE ............................................................................................................ 18 ZONE 2A KOCH BIHAR .......................................................................................................................... 18 ZONE 3 – DAKSHIN DINAJPUR, MALDAH, MURSHIDABAD AND UTTAR DINAJPUR .................................. 22 Dakshin Dinajpur ..................................................................................................................................... 24 ZONE 4 – MALDAH ............................................................................................................................... 30 ZONE 5 – MALDAH AND MURSHIDABAD .............................................................................................. 32 MURSHIDABAD ............................................................................................................................................... 32 ZONE 6 PARTS OF BANKURA, BARDHAMAN AND BIRBHUM .................................................................. 35 Bardhamann ............................................................................................................................................ 37 BARDHAMAN .................................................................................................................................................. 38 ZONE 7 – BANKURA, BARDHAMAN, HAORA, HUGLI, NADIA, NORTH 24 PARGANAS, PASCHIM MEDINIPUR, PURBA MEDINIPUR, SOUTH 24 PARGANAS ....................................................................... 40 WEST MIDNAPUR ............................................................................................................................................ 42 ZONE 7A – BARDHAMAN AND BIRBHUM .............................................................................................. 47 ZONE 8 – BANKURA, WEST MEDINIPUR AND PURULIA DISTRICTS .......................................................... 48 ZONE 9 PARTS OF BANKURA, PASCHIM MEDINIPUR AND PURULIYA ..................................................... 57 ZONE 10 PARTS OF HAORA, HUGLI, NADIA, NORTH AND SOUTH 24 PARGANAS ..................................... 58 ZONE 11 – FIVE BLOCKS OF SOUTH 24 PARGANAS DISTRICT .................................................................. 61 ZONE 12 SOME BLOCKS OF NORTH 24 PARGANAS, EAST MEDINIPUR AND SOUTH 24 PARGANAS .......... 62 ZONE – 13 NORTH AND SOUTH 24 PARGANAS ..................................................................................... 64 AWM INVESTMENT POTENTIAL ............................................................................................................ 66 SOLUTIONS AS AN AWM INTERVENTION ............................................................................................................. 67 WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT .............................................................................................................................. 68 WATER HARVEST ............................................................................................................................................. 71 WATER AND SOIL CONSERVATION ....................................................................................................................... 74 iii ELECTRIFICATION ............................................................................................................................................. 76 FINANCING ..................................................................................................................................................... 78 DRIP IRRIGATION ............................................................................................................................................. 79 SMALL-SCALE LIFT IRRIGATION............................................................................................................................ 80 SOLAR ...........................................................................................................................................................