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Tsunami- Relief and Restoring Livelihoods & Habitats DHAN Foundation Initiatives - Update 17
1.0 Initiatives in DHAN Foundation
The sixteenth update was on Information and communication Technology (ICT) initiatives of DHAN Foundation in the tsunami affected areas. This update takes you through the coastal agriculture practices in the Tsunami affected areas and the community based agricultural intervention works initiated by DHAN Foundation to rehabilitate the salt affected lands. The interventions made in other sectors also forms part of the update.
2.0 Coastal
Agriculture in Nagapattinam district
In Keelaiyur, Thalainayuru, Vedaraniam and Nagapattinam blocks of Nagapattinam district, rainfed agriculture is practiced in the coastal areas stretching from 4km to 5 kilometres along the coast. The main crops grown in this area are paddy, ground nut and vegetables like brinjal, bhendi, snake guard and cucumber. The perennial tree crops grown in this area are coconut, mango, cashew nut, tamarind and casurina. The land holdings are very small and it ranges from 0.5 acre to 2 acres. Most of the farmers area not taking ploughing operation for the land preparation, instead, they simply use spade for preparing the land and sow the seeds. Paddy in the coastal area is direct sown only. The yield ranges from 20 to 40 bags (60 kg / bag) per acre depending upon the rainfall received during the cropping period. Most of the cropping period is taken care of the North East Monsoon rainfall and very few number of irrigation only provided through farm pond. Ground nut is sown at the end of the north east monsoon period. In ground nut, farmers are able to get 15 to 20 bags (40 kg of dried ground nut) in an acre of land. For ground nut surface irrigation is very limited in this area. The use of farm ponds for irrigation purpose and is mostly through sprinkler method. The farm ponds are shallow in depth ranging from 12 -15 feet. As the quality of water in deeper strata is brackish in nature the depth of the farm ponds are limited to shallow depth only. Farm ponds are available in every field. Three ponds were made in one acre of agriculture land that caters to daily requirement. The number of ponds per village varies and is based on the area and topography of the village. About 150 to 300 ponds are there in each village. The farm pond water is used for irrigating the field and is mostly pumped by using the diesel engines. In some places farmers use electrical motors of lower HP say 1 to 1.5HP for pumping. Farmers adopt sprinkler irrigation practices for ground nut crops. Flexible / rolling type of PVC pipes are used for this purpose. The length of the delivery pipe depends on the size of the land. To minimize the length of the pipes, farmers strategically locate the pond the centre of the field. In Sirkali and Kollidam blocks of Nagapattinam district which forms part of the Cauvery command area extending almost close to the sea coast. Being low lying area, the main crop is low land paddy. Based upon the availability of water in Mettur Dam, farmers go for pulses as a second crop here. In some elevated sandy areas, farmers grow ground nut as a first crop.
3.0 Coastal Agriculture in Karaikkal, Union Territory of Pondicherry
The agriculture practices in Karaikal is similar to Sirkali and Kollidam blocks of Nagapattinam district. In Karaikkal, there are number of small ponds in the command area. Farmers fill the Cauvery river water in their private farm ponds and use it when there is a need for irrigation.
4.0 Problems in the coastal agriculture
4.1 Rainfed
agriculture In most of the years farmers are able to get reasonable yield. But there are periods during which the yield gets reduced. During Excess rainfall the yield is affected due to poor drainage system and also during years of poor rainfall or drought the crop yield gets affected. This has forced the farmers to look for alternate livelihoods and thus prawn culture is being practiced in areas near the coast in government lands which is not permissible.
4.2
Irrigated Agriculture Cauvery water is the main source of irrigation. In the past, there was assured water supply for the crops. But, in the recent years farmers face the brunt of water scarcity in the command areas. Last year, farmers were able to get enough water from the Mettur Dam, but the Tsunami caused complete damage to the crops in the coastal area. Before that the are was reeling under continuous drought for four years. In Nagapattinam and Karaikkal a vast stretch of agricultural land has been converted for prawn farming which affected the entire eco system badly.
5.0 Impact
of Tsunami
This year is an exceptional year, as most the crops affected due to the invasion of tsunami in coastal areas. The sea water entered into the farming fields and completely damaging the standing crops. In addition to the annual crops, farms with horticulture crops such as cashew and casurina also got affected. The damage is more in the case of young tree crops. The sea water invaded the agricultural fields leaving behind thick deposits of marine sediments in the agriculture fields. The thickness of marine sediments rages from a few millimeters to 15 cm in thickness. Most of the farm ponds also got filled with sea water which is not suitable for irrigation. The drainage channels got silted with marine sediments. In most of the places breach of the bunds occurred and the sand has been deposited unevenly in the cultivated land.
The agricultural department has analysed the soil samples and found that the electrical conductivity of the soil has increased from 1.0 to 12.0 mmhos per cm. Hence, remedial measure is to be taken to bring back the soil to its original condition. The pH of the soil is not affected due to tsunami.
6.0 DHAN Foundation’s initiatives in Tsunami relief and rehabilitation works
6.1
Community Mobilisation
Based on a rapid disaster assessment by the professional team in DHAN, the staff of DHAN immediately got into action and initiated the process of discussion with the local community to assess the scale of impact at micro level. In addition to relief works, DHAN Foundation spearheaded the livelihood rehabilitation initiatives with the farming community. Based on the interaction with the community it was decided that dewatering the sea water from the farm pond and disposing it back in to the sea as the immediate need. The coastal farmers have been organized in to groups called Vayalagam and totally 166 Vayalagam groups have been promoted in the Tsunami affected areas.
6.2
Desilting the drainage channels It was realized that desilting of the drainage channel is one of the important works to drain the Tsunami water that inundated in the agricultural fields and the village settlement area. The works were done as cash for work programme. A total of 3540 metres of drainage channels have been desilted. This benefited more than 100 farming families and generated a total of 525 man days employment.
6.3
Dewatering the Farm pond Around 800 farm ponds were dewatered and cleaned in Kelaiyur, Vedaraniam, Thalinayiru, Sirkali and Kollidam blocks of Nagapattinam. These farm ponds are meant for giving life irrigation to the agricultural crops. In addition to those irrigation ponds around 31 common ponds were dewatered in the Karaikkal region of Pondicherry. These ponds are meant for the domestic purposes. The Public Works Department of the Karaikkal region was approached and both irrigation ponds and the common ponds were filled with fresh water. The community was able to appreciate the interventions made by DHAN particularly in renovating the coastal water bodies.
The Vayalagam groups purchased diesel engines for dewatering the farm pond. In some of the vayalagams the diesel engines were hired and farmers came with diesel as their contribution for dewatering the brackish water from the farm ponds. Along with water, marine deposits and muck were also removed from the ponds. Desilting and renovating the drainage channels facilitated the process of disposing the salt water from the ponds to the sea.
6.4 Removal
of Marine deposits from the agricultural field
The Tsunami water entered into the agricultural field along with sediments and muck, polluting the agricultural land in addition to total damage on standing crops. Farmers felt that the removal of marine deposits is an immediate requirement to re-establish the farm lands so that farming activities can be taken up to take advantage of the forthcoming monsoon. Then it was decided to clean the marine deposit from the agricultural fields and dispose to them back into the sea. Farmers came forward to take up this activity with their contribution. The amount was disbursed to the members of the Vayalagam groups through its bank account. Depending upon the topography of the land the depth of the marine deposit varied from few mm to 10 cm. The marine deposits were scrapped and removed from the agricultural field.
6.5 Land
Reclamation A variety of land reclamation methods were tried on experimental basis in addition to removal of the marine deposit at Karaikkal. This includes
Varied quantities of gypsum and farm yard manure were used for different plots. The soil samples were analysed before and after the treatment. Green manure crops were raised in all the plots including the control plot. Different types of pulses were raised and are being monitored constantly. Salt tolerant crops like sunflower, carrot and ragi were tried out in the experimental plots. Good crop stand is visible in all the plots. This has also raised the level of confidence among the farmers. It is inferred that soils in mildly affected areas requires less intervention. Simple natural leaching by rainwater is sufficient to bring back the soil to its original condition. In the case of lands with severely affected soils, in addition to land reclamation measures, salt tolerant crops and varieties need to be introduced. It is expected that there will be reduction in crop yield for the next two years and after which the yield gets stabilized in such areas. Hence, heavy investment on land reclamation may not be advisable. Low cost technologies like raising of the green manure crops and incorporating in the field, introducing salt resistant crops and varieties need to be explored. Arranging quality seeds is the challenge for the coming season because farmers lost their seeds. Special efforts need to be taken to organize salt tolerant crops and varieties to the Tsunami affected coastal farmers. DHAN Foundation is taking efforts to organize the same to the farmers.
Building confidence among the farmers is very important. Fortunately, there was good rain in the summer. It is found that the salt content of the soil is reduced by leaching. Soil and water analysing kits has been supplied to the filed units to monitor the salt content in the soil on a regular basis and the result of same is being discussed with the farmers to build their confidence. The results are highly encouraging.
DHAN Foundation is planned to organize a training programme to the senior level development professionals in non government organizations and professionals in government departments on ‘Rehabilitation of Tsunami Affected Agricultural Lands’ during 27th June to 1st July 2005 at Velanganni of Nagapattinam district, Tamilnadu. The professionals working in the Tsunami affected areas of Srilanka and Andaman would be participating in the training programme to share their experiences.
6.6
Livelihood support through livestock activity The loss of livestock was assessed in the affected village. Special proposal was prepared and submitted to ACTED, France to provide livelihood support for the affected families through livestock activities. The proposal was appraised and sanctioned by ACTED. They have also visited Cuddalore and Karaikkal areas and interacted with the community. Groups have been promoted and bank account have been opened. Fund would be released to the groups and the group would give the same to its members after assessing the need.
7.0 Summary
of other Initiatives taken in tsunami affected areas
8.0
Visitors recently to the Project area
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