Chennai: T Jayaraj is a happy man. A year ago, this farmer from Tirunelveli was unable to reap good benefit from the tomatoes and chillies that he had grown on one acre of his five-acre land.
These villages in Tirunelveli face a paucity of rains, and farmers ended up migrating to other places looking for new jobs. Now, the farmers are back in the profession and are earning better incomes from the harvested crops. Jayaraj is bow setting up pipes for drip irrigation on his land and plans to sow tomatoes for the next season. He said: “Now, there is enough water to grow crops on the whole of 5 acres of my land, so I grow paddy, chillies and tomatoes. I am making over Rs 1.5 lakhs a year now.”
A series of check dams and farming ponds have been constructed in 1,500 hectares of 3 villages in Tirunelveli district. This is a part of the watershed management intervention program for improving water use efficiency, groundwater recharge and strengthening ecosystem in the areas that receive an average rainfall less than 500 mm.
The Coca-Cola India Foundation and Srinivasan Services Trust are carrying out this project. “This project has been helping the farmers for over a year and a half now. The biggest achievement of the project is the reduction of migration from these villages to 25% from the earlier 45%. Also, an acre of land earlier used to cost a Rs 30000, and with the availability of water now, the rates have shot up to Rs 5 lakhs an acre,” said Ashoke Joshi, Chairman, Srinivasan Services Trust.
G Nelson Chinnadurai, a 23-year-old BCA graduate was into farming since he was 17. He said that after finishing his graduation, he decided to become a full-time farmer as he seeing better prospects in farming. “I harvested paddy on three acres. Now, I am again going to grow paddy for the next season,” he said. “Earlier water was found at 60 ft depth, now it can be easily found at about 20 ft depths,” he added.
According to the Foundation, 21 farming ponds have been built across the three villages and the target is to build 84 such ponds by the end of 2016. These farm ponds help harvest rainwater and recharge their borewells and open wells. This ensures proper water supply to the surrounding fields.
“There are 54 borewells, which have now increased levels of water. Seven check dams have been completed. The water in the check dams will get over by May because of the heat but farmers have seen a difference in the groundwater levels because of the structure,” said a field officer associated with the project. The fields used to be barren, dry lands earlier, but now they are cultivable, he added.
