Irrigation system kindles hope in Yavatmal

Amid news of farmers' distress and suicides in Yavatmal district of Maharashtra, a Rs 11 lakh watershed management system seems to be giving some relief in Pimpri Hatgaon here.

Ramdas Bacchewar, who owns 4.5 acres of land in Pimpri-Hatgaon, is one of the beneficiaries of the project that helps farmers in the entire village.

There was a time a year ago when he was completely dependent on rain. The average produce of cotton was 1.5 quintal on an acre. Today he has assured water, and says he managed to harvest around 6 quintals on an acre.

The programme was executed by villagers in partnership with the Maharashtra government's irrigation department, the German government and local NGO Dharamitra. Similar projects are in various stages of completion in nine other villages in Yavatmal and 130 villages across the state. The project has a grant of Rs 126 crore from the German government.

The charm of the programme is that it is very participatory. "It is a 62.5 per cent participatory programme, under which the share of villagers in the construction of the dam and canal is 62.5 per cent by way of labour and cash and rest of the contribution is by the government," says Shankar Amilkanthwar, project coordinator of Dharamitra. Productivity has increased in fields by more than three times, he says,

"We selected Pimpri-Hatgaon, a typical village where farmers are dependent on rain-fed farming. It took several meetings with villagers to convinced them about the benefits of the project," he says.

They were asked where they wanted the check dam and how the canal should run through the village. With some modification, the irrigation department approved the plan and the cost of project was estimated at around Rs 11 lakh.

Then the major issue was how to raise funds for the project as many of the villagers hardly had any money to give. So they were given absolute flexibility in terms of contribution "" those who could give cash were asked to do so and those who could toil more in the field had to contribute in the form of labour.

"Many did not have cash. Instead, they offered cotton, vegetables and pulses, which they grow. We sold them in the market and credited the money to farmers account," he said.

While dealing with farmers' money, we maintained absolute transparency "" we used to conduct weekly meetings of farmers and table all the accounts of the project before them, which helped us win their confidence and ensure smooth execution of the project, Amilkanthwar added.

Once the project was completed in 2005, we helped farmers form a co-operative society to overlook operations and the maintenance of the check-dam and canal and collect water charges from farmers and now the project is completely managed by them, he says.

The co-operative society still follows the practice of holding weekly meetings and addressing the complaints or implementing the suggestions of its members, he pointed out.

Going back to Ramdas Bacchewar, he now plants soya, tur, mustard in the Rabi season and gets additional income. This was not possible earlier, he says.

Baburao Meshram, his neighbour, shows his newly acquired pair of bullocks and says : "Earlier I could not dream of owning a pair of bullocks and I had to borrow them from neighbours. But it is now possible."