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NOTES FROM THE FIELD  
 

MGNREGA Farm Pond Works – Perspectives of 
People and Policy 
 

Dimple Tresa Abraham  and Neetha N  

 
1. INTRODUCTION 

India is ranked thirteenth among the list of water stressed countries in the 
world (Bansal, 2019). In recent years India has witnessed acute water 
scarcity across states, resulting in a growing recognition that lives and 
livelihoods of all are intrinsically linked to water, and measures on a war 
footing are required to ensure that our basic needs of water is met. The Jal 
Shakti Abhiyan (JSA), set up in 2019, has reported that over the past few 
years 3.5 lakh water conservation measures were implemented, of which 
1.54 lakh were direct water conservation and rain water harvesting 
measures. The criticality of monsoons and rainwater harvesting has been 
championed by the Prime Minister, who in June 2019 had sent personalised 
letters to all village chiefs and had made a national call to take measures to 
conserve rainwater (IANS, 2019).  

Excavation of farm ponds, trenches and other earthen works are popular 
measures for water harvesting and conservation, and many of these receive 
monetary support from the government departments and ministries 
concerned. Under the JSA and the flagship public works programme of the 
country, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 

                                                           
 Centre for Women‘s Development Studies, 25- Bhai Vir Singh Marg, New Delhi – 110001, 

India; dimple@cwds.ac.in  

 Centre for Women‘s Development Studies, 25- Bhai Vir Singh Marg, New Delhi – 
110001, India; neetha@cwds.ac.in 

Copyright © Abraham and Neetha 2020. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC 4.0) by the author.  

Published by Indian Society for Ecological Economics (INSEE), c/o Institute of Economic 
Growth, University Enclave, North Campus, Delhi 110007.  

ISSN: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.96  

https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.96


Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [120] 

 

(MGNREGA), emphasis is given to farm pond works. 1  If we look at 
MGNREGA, since its inception, over 50% of its works are related to 
natural resource management, with a focus on rejuvenation of traditional 
water bodies and building new ponds and tanks on common lands. In 
addition to works on common/public property, the MGNREGA also have 
a provision to develop irrigation facility on private lands of eligible 
households, particularly those from the weaker socioeconomic groups 
(SC/ST and BPL), and marginal and small farmers (those owning less than 
2 hectare of land respectively). This provision aimed at creating sustainable 
livelihoods for individual households. The data indicate that the share of 
water harvesting and irrigation structures on private lands to total works 
have risen in recent years.2  

The notes from the field discussed here are based on insights from an 
extensive study3 undertaken by CWDS in 2018 on MGNREGA private 
land works across the states of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh (MP) and West 
Bengal. In addition, the notes also draw comparison to similar works in the 
state of Uttarakhand studied in 2019. All observations are limited to farm 
pond works alone.  

 

2. POLICY PUSH ON FARM PONDS 

Since the inception of MGNREGA, farm ponds are an integral part of its 
water conservation related works. But a big push came into the programme 
ecosystem when a commitment was made by the Prime Minister in 2016 
towards creating 500,000 farm ponds (Varma, 2016). 

Excavation and re-excavation of these water harvesting and storage 
structures were common works on private/individual lands in the initial 

                                                           
1 It is referred commonly as the MANREGA or the NAREGA. But in published 
documents, including that by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of 
India, it is written as the MGNREGA 
2The share of these individual land works out of total works has increased over 
time from 18.6% (out of the total 104.6 lakh works) in 2012-13 to 31.7% (out of 
the total 122.1 lakh works) in 2016-17. 
3CWDS (2018) study had covered over 3000 MGNREGA private land works, 
broadly categorized as category B works. These works were completed using 
MGNREGA funds but their maintenance is the responsibility of the individual 
beneficiary household. Beneficiaries who received completed income generating 
category B works from 2013-14 to 2015-16 FY as per the MGNREGA MIS 
(management information system) were selected in the sample.  



[121] Dimple Tresa Abraham and Neetha N 

 

years. But later re-excavation works were removed from the list of ‗eligible 
works on private lands‘ (owing to increasing number of ghost works and 
inability to identify re-excavations from new pond works) as is clear from 
directives issued by the Ministry of Rural Development (GOI, 2016). Our 
research observed that policy on farm pond works and specifications 
related to size and other parameters varied across study states with MP and 
Karnataka pushing for these works with a vision for water harvesting for 
agriculture and ground water recharge, while in West Bengal its focus was 
to facilitate fish farming for home consumption and livelihoods. 

Officials in-charge of MGNREGA implementation across states 
championed for farm ponds works on private lands as these were labour 
intensive (over 90% of work expenditure was spent on labour/wage 
payments); hence helped to maintain the mandatory 60:40 labour to 
material ratio.4 For instance, in Karnataka cattle/goat sheds were popular 
works among the beneficiaries. A ‗package of works‘ offer, to be completed 
within a 36 month time period (depending on number of applications 
received and budget for the year), was made to beneficiaries. There were 
three different packages, and in a popular option beneficiaries were 
provided with land development works (Rs.10,000/acre), a cattle/goat shed 
(Rs.35,000/unit) and farm pond works (Rs.19,500/unit). This ‗package‘ was 
policy strategy to ensure targets5 for farm ponds and other ground water 
recharging works would also be achieved without much difficulty.  

However, policy changes were common and took place at frequent 
intervals. For instance, in the block of Rajgarh in MP, farm pond 
construction (of a certain minimum dimension) was made as a 
supplementary work with dug wells for all new sanctions from 2017-18. 
This meant that a potential beneficiary had to possess sizable land area to 
ensure a farm pond was also constructed along with a dug well (with 
funding support from MGNREGA), which in effect meant the beneficiary 
had to earmark about one-fifth of a hectare for the ‗well-farm pond 
combination‘ work. Officials stated that this condition was added to ensure 
that at least some, if not all, of the ground water drawn from the well would 
be replenished through the farm pond (through rainwater harvesting and 
further ground water recharging). In addition, combination works also 
helped to ensure farm ponds were built and targets were achieved (GOI, 
2016), though this was never made in public statements. Rather officials 

                                                           
4 Inclusion of these works off-set material intensive works such as animal shelters 
and thus helped to maintain labour to material ratio at block level. 
5 GOI (2016) gives state-wise targets. 



Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [122] 

 

maintained these works were critical to ecology. A personal communication 
from an official with regard to why farm ponds were made an 
accompaniment work with dug wells is given below: 

Wells are like bank ATMs while ponds are equivalent to saving bank (SB) 
accounts. If you have no money in the SB account, then the ATM will not 
dispense any cash. Similarly, you should not be allowed to dig wells and draw 
upon ground water if you do not make farm ponds alongside. As only then you 
are contributing to recharging the ground water which you are drawing up from 
the well. 

 

3. PERCEPTION OF PEOPLE AND FARM PONDS 

Across the states, the initial years saw resistance towards farm pond works 
with only a few households applying for it. The general perception was that 
‗precious land would be lost‘, and the loss was not commensurate with the 
gains from improved crop yields as people felt there would hardly be any 
increase in cash incomes. The only exception was the case of those who 
were keen to venture into commercial fish farming, as was the case of some 
beneficiaries in blocks of West Bengal and Uttarakhand. While it was 
possible to undertake commercial fish farming even if the farm ponds 
retained water only for 8-9 months a year, beneficiaries hoped to farm fish 
round the year.  

Many of the beneficiaries in 24 Parganas South and Purba Medinipur 
district of West Bengal had farmed fish previously for home consumption, 
but with the new ponds they were able to grow fish for longer periods or 
about 9 months and earned higher incomes through fish sales. Most of the 
beneficiaries here abided with natural availability of water and stopped fish 
farming from March/April until monsoons. But beneficiaries of farm 
ponds in Dehradun and Haridwar districts of Uttarakhand, who incidentally 
were venturing into pisciculture for the first time, were keen to ensure 
availability of water round the year, for which they dug borewells alongside 
ponds. Installing bore wells and pumping up water to fill farm ponds was 
ecologically adverse for overall water economy of the area but no one — 
villagers, officials or elected representatives — took note of this paradox. 

In West Bengal, many households with farm ponds were raising fish for 
household consumption, while some were also earning regular income from 
sale of fish. Farm pond works were at times jointly executed for 3-4 



[123] Dimple Tresa Abraham and Neetha N 

 

beneficiaries in cases where individual land holdings were tiny6 in size and 
hence land pooling by beneficiaries who owned adjacent plots helped to 
excavate larger ponds. This improved the scope for commercial fish 
farming.  

Beneficiaries in Laksmijanardhanpur (Pathar Pratima block of 24 Parganas 
South), T Majee and M Samal, who received farm ponds in 2015-16 were 
farming fish and earning Rs.500-1000/month. But J Bunia, a beneficiary who 
had ventured into betel leaf farming after completion of farm pond in 2013-14 
had experienced manifold increase in income with the household earning close 
to Rs.1,00,000 from sale of betel leaves (0.08 ha) in 2017. In all cases, 
beneficiaries also reported that the ponds ensured plenty of fish for their home 
consumption, a staple in Bengali diet. 

In Karnataka, across study districts of Ramanagara and Tumkur farm ponds 
were individually provided, as unlike West Bengal, here average household 
land ownership was sizable. One aspect that was clear from discussions 
with officials and people was that the resistance towards excavation of farm 
ponds during initial years, had significantly reduced and many households 
were applying for these works as they were able to ‗witness‘ its benefit. In 
some of the villages in Ramanagara, particularly, there were many ‗new‘ 
applications as villagers saw how sericulture incomes of their neighbours 
had risen owing to these works. 

In Choodahalli GP, Balaramu who had received a farm pond in 2015-16 was 
able to harvest 425 kg of cocoon compared to about 375-390 kg previously. In 
I Gollahalli, another beneficiary, Kulliah who had received a farm pond in 
2015-16, had benefitted from higher mulberry leaf production from his 1 acre 
plantation, which in turn led to increased cocoon production of 290kg (earlier 
the average was not above 250kg). 

Dairy farmer Sannegowda, also from Choodahalli, had always bought water 
spending close to Rs.10, 000 during the summer season for raising napier grass 
for his cows. But construction of a farm pond on his land in 2015 had helped 
to harvest rainwater and store it to tide over the summer months. After the 
farm pond was built on his land, he had stopped purchasing water. 

 

4. CONCLUSION 

The positive impact of farm ponds is substantial and for many there was 
decipherable improvement in crop yields improving cash incomes or 

                                                           
6the modal land class category was 0-0.1 Ha with 46.6 per cent of beneficiary 
households having on an average 0.02 Ha or 5 decimals of land 



Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [124] 

 

household food consumption or both. In case of beneficiaries who were 
only practicing subsistence agriculture, households were able to grow crops 
over longer duration, and reduce market dependence for grains and 
vegetables. But it was also observed that in many GPs across the study 
states, there were beneficiaries whose farm ponds had shrunk in size and 
depth, owing to carelessness with regard to regular maintenance (periodic 
cleaning activities, including removal of accumulated silt). These 
beneficiaries hoped that some support would be extended towards 
maintaining the ponds to ensure sustainability over time.  

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

The Notes from the field are mostly based on insights drawn from a 
multistate study titled ―MGNREGA, Asset Creation and Rural 
Development: An Evaluation of Category B Assets in Selected States‖ 
conducted by Centre for Women‘s Development Studies, New Delhi in 
2017. Observations are also drawn from another study on water 
conservation works completed in the state of Uttarakhand in 2019. The 
authors acknowledge the funding support from National Institute of Rural 
Development & Panchayati Raj (NIRD&PR) Hyderabad. 

 

REFERENCES 

Bansal, Swati. 2019. ―Jal Shakti Abhiyan hits ground rolling as India ranks 13th most 
water-stressed country in the world.‖ Indiawaterportal. Accessed on August 8, 2019. 
https://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/jal-shakti-abhiyan-hits-ground-rolling-india-
ranks-13th-most-water-stressed-country-world 

CWDS. 2018. MGNREGA, Asset Creation and Rural Development- An Evaluation of Category 
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Creation+and+Rural+Development.pdf/a5c6bc36-5dee-40e8-98b0-3e816bc3a447 

GOI. 2016. Government of India Circular No-J-11060/2/2016-MGNREGA-V. New Delhi: 
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IANS. 2019. ―Dear sarpanchji, namaskar: PM Modi writes personal letter to village 
pradhans on saving rainwater.‖ India Today, June 15. Accessed on August 8, 2019. 
https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/modi-letter-village-pradhans-saving-rainwater-
1549314-2019-06-15 

Varma, Gyan. 2016. ―Govt to build 500,000 ponds in rural areas: Narendra Modi.‖ 
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