Impacts of Palai Dam on Land use and Cropping Pattern of Mouza Qilla, District Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Impacts of Palai Dam on Land use and Cropping Pattern of Mouza Qilla, District Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Muhammad Jamal Nasir, Anwar Saeed Khan, Said Alam and Saeed Akhtar
ABSTRACT
Palai dam is a small irrigation dam located on the northern border of district Charsadda, adjacent to Mohmand agency. The construction of dam was started in 2009 and was completed in 2011. It is claimed that dam will irrigate 5000 acre of land in four mouza’s of district Charsadda. Present study is an attempt to determine the impact of Palai dam on the land use and cropping pattern, crop production and revenue of mouza Qilla, Tehsil Tangi, district Charsadda in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. Secondary data was collected from revenue office Tangi, and was geospatially analyzed in ARC GIS 10.1. Geographic information system (GIS) is a computer-based set of procedures used to store and analyze geographically-referenced data. Primary data about crop yield and per acre production, new seed and crop varieties etc. was collected with the help of a questionnaire survey. A total of 50 household were surveyed which make 45 percent of the total (114 households). The analysis of acquired data reveals that in 2008-09 tube well irrigated land account for 81.67 acre which decreased to 37.46 acre in 2013-14, after the dam construction. The number of parcels irrigated by tube well decreased from 158 to 75 in 2013-14. Today canal irrigation is the largest source of irrigation in the Mouza, which accounts for 56.09 acre. The analysis also reveals that the centuries old conventional subsistence agriculture is changed to market farming i.e. from wheat to vegetable and sugarcane. The yield per acre of almost every crop grown has been increased, which considerably increased the crop revenue. Due to availability of irrigation water, the current fallow in both the Rabi (winter cropping) and Kharif (summer cropping) has decreased with matching increase in area net sown. The study suggests that mouza has capacity for further increase in cropping intensity and cultivated land, if innovatory irrigation and agriculture practices were adopted which can surely raise the agricultural productivity and socio economic condition of the residents.
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