Activities within the grant:
A third phase of support to the “North Gujarat sustainable groundwater initiative” towards ensuring sustainable groundwater use in semi-arid and arid regions through promotion of improved farmer management of land and water resources is now proposed to consolidate gains in Banaskantha district that were achieved during the first and second phases of support, whilst also expanding activities to other areas of north Gujarat and Rajasthan. The proposed phase III, which would be implemented by SOFILWM, would have the following objectives:

	Designing and piloting groundwater management strategies for new regions having different geo-hydrological and socio-economic conditions as compared to north Gujarat and western Rajasthan
	Scaling up the existing groundwater management interventions in north Gujarat region focusing on small and marginal farmers, especially tribal
	Promoting equity in groundwater management approaches in north Gujarat
	Assisting non-profit organisations (NPO) and local grass root organisations in evolving strategies for groundwater management
	Analysing the larger physical and socio-economic impacts of the interventions, and widely disseminating the results among the key stakeholders. Overall, around 5,000 farmers would be directly benefited. Further, the adoption of micro irrigation (MI) systems on a large scale would result in an improvement in groundwater levels and indirectly benefit another 7,500 farmers. With the adoption of MI systems, the farmer would have incremental income to the tune of around 56 per cent in the case of traditional crops such as cotton and castor. Through adoption of horticulture crops, the farmer would have an additional income of Rs6,000 per annum. The micro irrigation activity would also help in improvement of the groundwater quality (reducing fluoride). Vegetable cultivation, using drum kit activity, would provide additional income of Rs5,000 per annum to women farmers having small land holding. Changes in farming systems will lead to the introduction of new crops and irrigation technologies. With the use of efficient micro irrigation systems, the farmers would be able to cut down water consumption, which will consequently improve the groundwater scenario in the region. Income from farming would increase substantially with increased yield of existing crops and through adoption of high-value crops. The project will also provide an opportunity to small, marginal and tribal farmers to have easy access to resources, which would consequently result in greater opportunities for generating an economic surplus from farming activities.

Key project activities are as follows:

	Scaling up the groundwater management interventions
	Training and capacity building of farmers and documentation and knowledge sharing
	Designing and piloting groundwater management strategies for west Rajasthan region
	Analyze the larger physical and socio-economic impacts of the interventions and widely disseminate the results among the key stakeholders.