The Ground Truth
The family made it possible
Munivenkatappa is one of the farmers who is a member of the Agriculture Finance Group (AFG) named Sri Venkateshwara Vayalagam SwaSahaya Sangha, promoted by DVTF in Belaganahalli village, Kolar taluk, Karnataka. Munivenkatappa, is a small farmer, leading a large family of eleven members. Though three of their family members are undergoing education, the entire family puts their blood and sweat on their farms cultivating seven different crops across the year. This was not the case before 20 years. The family was cultivating ragi as monocrop, struggling to survive with their 5 acres of rainfed land and two milch animals.
After joining Vayalagam and AFG in 2012, Munivenkatappa had strong access to financial linkages and enhanced his capacities in crop diversification and better-rainfed agriculture practices. As of date, the family of Munivenkatappa is cultivating Ragi, field bean, Red gram, Mango, Potato, Tomato, and Chilly, rearing four milch cows and twenty-five sheep. Munivenkatappa strongly believes that farming is a culture that binds his large family to continue as a joint one, as it strongly demands values such as co-operativeness, interdependency, integration, and holistic perspectives. Munivenkatappaā€™s family substantiates that collectiveness is key to sustainable farming.
Rejuvenating urban wetlands
One of the twenty-two ooranis that were most recently added to Madurai Corporation's list of ooranis is ThumbaiChediMeduOorani. The DVTF, Madurai District Administration, and HCL Foundation worked together to digitise all of the district's water commons in accordance with Cadastral Maps, leading to this addition. The subsurface water flow was stored in the ooranis, which are traditional commons for drinking water. The British authorities' installation of French drains, which cleaned urban sewage, converted paddy fields into fodder farms throughout the urbanisation process. The surrounding communities ignored the non-potable oorani water for over eight decades due to the treated sewage seep.
Weeds had overtaken and severely silted up the oorani. It was also encroached upon thirty years ago when a private party built a Samadhi (Burial). With assistance from the HCL Foundation, DVTF renovated the 1.2-acre oorani in 2023, bringing its capacity back to 2,400 cu.m. Native aquatic and terrestrial birds are currently satisfied, just as the oorani formerly satisfied the thirst of agricultural labourers. In addition, the oorani began to function as a buffer strip against flooding, creating urban wetlands.
Back to prosperity
Around 250 families in A.Thottiyankulam, Kariyapatti Block, Virudhunagar district, Tamil Nadu, depend on the PeriyaKanmoi (Irrigation Tank) to irrigate their 110 acres of paddy field. The irrigation tank's sole source is the supply channel that passes through the 50 acres of rain-fed field. A severe drought that occurred between 2006 and 2009 forced small and marginal farmers to sell their rainfed lands to a non-native private individual. The person who purchased the land progressively encroached and reduced the 15 m wide supply channel to 6 m. In 2018 the farmers of A.Thottiyankulam were prompted to petition the district collector by the Vayalaga Mutual Movement. The eviction procedure advanced slowly but steadily with constant follow-ups, and in 2023 the Vayalagam Mutual movement made it possible for revenue and police officersto remove 18 acres of encroachment, valued at Rs. 15,00,000. With the help of the SBI Foundation's Gram Seva Programme, the waterway was later desilted and extended in accordance with the records. The feeder now supplies water into the PeriyaKanmoi to the maximum extent possible, tripling the filling percentage.