Rainwater Harvesting and Rural Livelihoods in Nepal

Abstract

Springs are drying and rainfallRainfall patterns are changing in the Himalayas, resulting in water scarcityWater scarcity for agricultureAgriculture. We examine the adoption of rainwater harvestingRainwater harvesting, a technology that has been recently re-designed and re-introduced to farmers in Nepal, as a climate change adaptationClimate change adaptation strategy in mountain farmingFarming. Using farm householdHouseholds surveys, we examine the impact of the adoption of rainwater harvestingRainwater harvesting on farm incomeFarm income and profitability. The adoption of the technology is mostly driven by external support such as farmers training that more than tripled householdHouseholds agricultural and livestock income. With incremental annual benefits of US$700 on average per adopter, this technology is economically viable from a householdHouseholds perspective. Adopters benefit from an increased supply of irrigation water during the dry season, which allows them to diversify their crops from subsistence cereal production to commercial high-value vegetables. Our analysis suggests that if 10% of householdsHouseholds in an average rainfed district receive farmingFarming-related training, the net benefits in the district would be approximately US$1.3 million per year from the adoption of rain water harvesting technology. Given climatic and weather-related uncertainties faced by rainfed agricultureRainfed agriculture in the hills of Nepal, Rainwater harvesting this technology is potentially a very useful climate change adaptationClimate change adaptation strategy for community resilienceCommunity resileince in the hills of Nepal.

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