MARVI

Managing Aquifer Recharge and Groundwater Use through Village-level Intervention

A project of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research 2011-  2017

Coordinator: Prof Basant Maheshwari, Western Sydney University, Australia   B.Maheshwari@westernsydney.edu.au 

The objective of the MARVI project, which is set in semi-arid upland hardrock catchments in Rajasthan and Gujarat, India, is focused on developing a village level participatory approach, models and tools to assist in improving groundwater supplies and reducing demand through the direct involvement of farmers. It involves 9 partner organisations from 3 countries.  A unique feature of MARVI is the training of selected farmers as Bhujal Jankaars (BJs), a Hindi word meaning ‘groundwater informed’ to monitor groundwater levels and quality, and to interpret results to farmers concerning village groundwater availability. BJs have also monitored a number of checkdams to allow quantitative assessment of recharge and calculation of economics of recharge structures and their maintenance. Sunmmaries are given in the marvi-brochure (Oct 2016) or the MARVI web site. The MARVI Declaration arising from the Ahmedabad Workshop 30-31 May 2017 summarises workshop outcomes concerning implementation of the concepts, methods and tools developed during the MARVI project.