[[Image:Pond_farming_icon.png|right|80px]][[Image:Pond farming.PNG|thumb|right|300px200px|Sketch diversified pond farming, Bolivia. Drawing: M. Verweij, SNV. Netherlands Water Partnership.]]__NOTOC__<small-title />
“''Before we had these farm ponds we could only farm in the wet season and everybody migrated to make money to survive. Now with these ponds we can work on our own land, year round, and we produce a surplus to sell at the market. These ponds give us hope for our community and children.''” said Máximo Gonzales in the April 1996 issue of the ILEIA Newsletter (Maita and Verweij 1996).
Pond farming is now promoted elsewhere, following successful experiences in Bolivia. As ponds and pond farming become more widely known, they are becoming more accepted.
===Suitable conditions===
Make sure the soil is not deteriorated or eroded. If growing for high yields to sell, make sure the market has a need for such quantities.
===Construction, operations and maintenance===[[Image:pond farming layout.jpg|thumb|right|300 200 px|Diversified pond farm. Drawing: Verweij, 2001.]]
Building the pond takes an average of 14 man days.
Having worked on productive aspects, peasants are also looking towards processing, transforming and marketing of their products, which is something they cannot do on their own. Developing the farming community means that all these aspects have to be worked on. Anyone who intends to support this process has the moral obligation to go beyond farm ponds and technological packages. That is why today’s agricultural scientists and rural instructors must have a more complete understanding of sustainable agriculture and the food production chain. They also should be versatile and take an active part in peasant struggles.
===Cost===
* Material: pond 1,000 m: US$ 200 - 1,600
Social capital, in terms of self-esteem, credibility of the support agents involved, mutual respect and confidence between peasant families and the support organisation, and shared background and responsibility, is needed to obtain tangible results.
===Field experiences===
Once water is available, a part of the new farm pond users (about 25% of the farmers in CORACA’s operational area) concentrates on growing crops like onions, tomatoes and potatoes for the market. These market farmers tend to grow one or two crops intensively and then leave the land to lie fallow after the harvest, when the water runs dry. Their production system is intensive and yields are high: more than 40 tons per ha. of tomatoes and 30 tons of onions. Without much help from outside, they sell the produce in their own town as well as in Sucre and Cochabamba. In 1999, when prices of tomatoes were high, tomato farmers earned up to US$1800 from a 2000 square metre plot, spending US$425 on fertilisers, pesticides and transport. They had never before had so much money in their hands and earned back their initial investment in one year! But prices are not always high and increasingly farmers start to feel the economic and ecological problems related to monoculture market farming.
===Manuals, videos, and links===
* [http://www.snvworld.org www.snvworld.org]
* [http://www.scribd.com/doc/18420407/FAOFarm-Ponds-for-Water-Fish-and-Aquaculture Farm ponds for water, fish, and livelihoods.] FAO, 2009.
* [http://journeytoforever.org/farm_pond.html Aquaculture for small farms.]
===Acknowledgements===
* [http://www.agriculturesnetwork.org/magazines/global/lessons-in-scaling-up/towards-sustainable-pond-farming Towards sustainable pond farming.] Agricultures Network.
* [http://www.spate-irrigation.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/SWHSfinalversion.pdf Smart water harvesting solutions: Examples of innovative, low-cost technologies for rain, fog, run-off water, and groundwater.] Netherlands Water Partnership, 2007.
