: In Malkangiris tribal villages, every drop saved today is an investment for tomorrow #IndiaNEWS #State Malkangiri: A community-led water governance initiative is doing wonders for tribal farmers in

In Malkangiris tribal villages, every drop saved today is an investment for tomorrow #IndiaNEWS #State
Malkangiri: A community-led water governance initiative is doing wonders for tribal farmers in Odishas Malkangiri district, helping them cultivate round the year, harvest better yield, earn higher income and consume diversified nutritious food.
All our crops were rainfed, but we still received good yields. We sold the surplus at local weekly markets and bartered some for essential goods. However, climate change made things unpredictable, said Dhanurjaya Khila of Kadamguda in Korkunda block.
Farmers started incurring losses due to erratic rainfall and prolonged dry spells. We slowly lost faith in agriculture. Many migrated to Andhra Pradesh for work, said Arjun Khila, another farmer.
Dhanurjaya and Arjun represent hundreds of thousands of farmers, who struggle to cope with the rising temperature, heavy rainfall, flash floods and landslides.
To strengthen farmers resilience and livelihood security, the Department of Agriculture in collaboration with local civil societies such as Sisu O Mahila Kalyana Samiti (SOMKS) and Parivartan launched a community-driven micro-irrigation programme, supported under the Special Programme for Promotion of Integrated Farming (SPPIF), in 2019-20.
The system provided water to 651 acres and benefited 295 tribal farmers spread across Tekguda village in Khairput block, Chitapari III and Totaguda in Korkunda, and Potitang, Themrupali and Batriatal in Malkangiri block.
Channelling resources
Group discussions were organised with farmers to identify major water deficit areas. The agriculture departments technical team comprising engineers and soil conservationists identified and marked certain areas in their farms that required irrigation.
Based on our study, water deficit areas in farms were converted into water outlets, said Soumya Ranjan Majhi, an engineer with SPPIF, Malkangiri. Each outlet covered three to five acres, to which water from natural streams was carried using pipeline distribution networks. Water was then redirected through drip irrigation to those areas where crops were cultivated. Earlier, people used to flood the entire farm, which led to wastage of water.
Also, a cadre of community resource persons in the role of pump-cum-valve operators was created. The village water user committee (VWUC) members appointed the operator for a monthly payment of Rs 2,000. One such operator, Jalandar Dalapati regularly inspects the functioning of motor and pipeline networks, and informs engineers if something is amiss.
Every drop of water is precious. We have sensitised farmers not to over-irrigate. They mostly think it will spur plant growth, instead it leads to waterlogging, leaches away soil nutrients, and reduces soil fertility, said Jagabandhu Hantal, pump-cum-valve operator in Totaguda.

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