Farmers in Dewas, a perpetually water-short district in Madhya Pradesh's Malwa region, have built an estimated 30,000 to 35,000 farm ponds since 2006, holding rainwater on their fields and securing irrigation for a second crop, Down To Earth reports. There is no official count; experts put the figure at around 30,000.
The ponds have brought new income. Pope Singh of Nipania village says he catches about 50 tonnes of fish, worth nearly Rs 1 crore, every other year; Balramji Patel of Khoob village says he sold chia seeds worth Rs 23 lakh last year; and Subhash Jalotiya of Dhaturiya says he sold wheat worth Rs 60 lakh in 2025. Farmers have also taken up dairy with improved cattle breeds.
Before the ponds, tube wells carried the district. A study by the International Water Management Institute counted 3,887 tube wells in 1990, 14,172 by 1998 and 23,119 by 2009-10, with about 82% of irrigation drawn from groundwater. The Central Ground Water Board's 2023 assessment classifies Dewas as overexploited, with extraction at 79.99% of recharge district-wide and 110.88% in Dewas block.
The change began in 2006, when the district administration under collector Umakant Umrao gave technical advice and helped farmers get bank loans, asking large farmers to give a tenth or a fifth of their land to ponds. Starting with 40 large farmers, about 2,000 ponds were dug within 14 months. "The only change we brought about was the decision to stop letting rainwater run off, and hold it on the farm," Umrao said.
Hydrogeologist Sunil Chaturvedi said the ponds strengthened rainwater harvesting and irrigation security, with some water seeping down to recharge groundwater; as ponds filled, wells regained water and farmers began growing wheat, oilseeds and chia as a second crop.
The model has limits. It depends on owning land, getting credit and being able to give up cropland, and the gains have gone mostly to larger farmers. "For someone with 2 acres, a pond is not a tenth of the farm, it might be a third of the family's food security," said a farmer in Tonk Kala who has not built one. Groundwater extraction also remains high despite the ponds.
Source: Down To Earth
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