SHIMLA: An initiative to construct water ponds to store the rain water for agricultural usage is transforming the lives of farmers in Rajgarh block in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh.
Earlier, the agriculture in the block was dependent on rain and many a time farmers used to see crop failures.
Now, slowly crop failure is becoming a thing of the past as the farmers are using stored water to irrigate their lands.
So far, 50 ponds have been constructed while 100 more ponds are in the pipeline.
Ashok Kumar, a farmer from Chogtali village of Rajgarh block, used to earn Rs 80,000 per season from the eight bighas of land as missing irrigational facility and heavy dependence on rain used to affect the crop production.
After finding that feeding a family of six persons had become a challenge due to less returns from his land holding, he decided to apply for the water pond scheme.
With the financial assistance from the block development office Rajgarh, he constructed the water pond in his land and today he earns around Rs 3.5 lakh to 4 lakh per season.
He says that the small idea of having a pond to store the water for irrigation purposes has changed his life for the better.
Similarly, Sandeep Kumar from Serjgaas village having a family of eight members was finding it difficult to make both ends meet as he used to earn only Rs 60,000 per season from his six bighas of land.
He too constructed a water pond to end his dependence on rain and now earns Rs 3 lakh annually.
Block development officer Arvind Singh Guleria said that before starting this campaign, agriculture was mostly rainfed and farmers often had to face crop failure, while the production of garlic, tomato, beans (cash crops) —2-3 quintals (Garlic) per bighas — was below their potential.
He said that after the construction of individual farm ponds (Johar) production of cash crops has increased manifold, which is 10-12 quintals per bigha for garlic, beside other cash crops.
He said that besides economic impact, this campaign has social and environmental conservation impact also, as many BPL and SC families have benefited under this scheme.
Ecologically, these farms ponds are helping in water conservation, ground water recharge and soil conservation.
He said that 50 such farm ponds have been developed under this campaign and 100 such applications have been received by Block Office Rajgarh.
He said that they have set the target of 200 such ponds in Rajgarh block, as the farmers are keen on this campaign.
