Case8-April-2013
DHAN Foundation initiated the Tank program in the year 2007 with the support of Andrapradesh community based tank and water management program (APCBTMP). in three mandals viz. Kavali, Marripadu and Seetaramapuram of Nellore District, Andrapradesh. The objective of the program was to promote association of tank cascade farmers, who themselves will actively involve in preservation and maintenance of tanks in these mandals apart from remaining as a sounding board for practicing improved agricultural techniques. Incidentally as Udayagiri mandal remained the center for this mandal the location office was set up in Udayagiri.
Udayagiri mandal also had tanks, open wells and bore well as irrigation source. As the mandal did not get covered by the APCBTMP a project DHAN Foundation started implementing the tank program with the support of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited- Oil Indian Development Board) in the year 2010. With this support Vayalagam were formed in 9 villages of which 5 villages has both tank and wells as irrigation source ( Pullayapalli, Ayyavaripalli, Kottalapalli,SV chintala and Gudinarava) and 4 were irrigated by open wells and bore wells alone (Bodabanda, Sakunalapalli,Annampalli and Dumpavaripalli). Tank renovation works, farm pond constructions and rejuvenation of open wells are being implemented currently in these villages.
Kottalapalli is a small village in Udayagiri under Gannepalli panchayat with only 37 families all of the same Naidu community. The village is located 11 km from Udayagiri. The village has one tank which has a command area of 20 acres, 40 acres being irrigated by open wells and borewells. Apart from this there are 30 acres of dry land with no source of irrigation and which depend entirely on rainfall. The villagers grow paddy, sunflower, millets, turmeric and maize.
In 2010 December, DHAN Foundation staff conducted the village level meetings in Kottalapalli to create awareness and education on Rain water harvesting, renovation of tanks, terms and condition for people contribution (people has to contribute 25% of the estimation cost for any water harvesting works) and about BPCL-OIDB project. As these works cannot be sustainable without people support, lot of trainings were given to get community involvement and their willingness to provide the land for grounding the structures. Initially the villagers did not have belief in our efforts. After repeated attempts and after screening of films of our efforts in Punganur location, people got motivated and formed one village association with 47 members on January, 2011. This association was named as Kottalapalli Vayalaga Raithula sangam. The tank and open wells in the village were in a bad shape and the people expressed their need to rejuvenate them during the village meetings. The village had 10 open wells and the visits were made to the wells of which 3 were considered for rejuvenation. The farmers gave applications to Kottalapalli Vayalaga raithula sangam and each well was sanctioned Rs25000 and after getting 25 % people contribution to the Sangam
There was one Pata bavi (pata bavi- an old open well) in the village, the water from which was shared and used by four farmers, each owning 1.5 acres of land. The farmers were
Though six acres of land has to be irrigated, the open well had a water level of only 2 metres which was not sufficient to irrigate the entire six acres. Only 2 to 3 acres got irrigated each year and this is the situation for the past six years since 2011. They used to grow paddy and pearl millets in their lands. However the yield was low due to insufficient irrigation. All the four farmers suffered a lot because of lack of water and due to the meager income they could earn from these lands. This was one of the open well considered for rejuvenation and the works started in April, 2012. It took seven days with men and machines to excavate 280 cubic meter of silt from the well. Immediately after 3 or 4 days after completing the work, the water level sprang up to four meters. The farmers were very much delighted. Chandranarayana said “I am seeing the well with good water level after long long years. I am happy that all four of us can cultivate the entire land, thanks to the effort of DHAN Foundation” Now the farmers have sown 5.5 acres of pearl millet in the last week of June and another half an acre with turmeric. They now have no worries about the irrigating their crops and are expecting good yield and returns from their agricultural land.