- Farmers within the semi-arid Marathwada area are desilting native water our bodies for elevated water availability and better crop yield.
- The Maharashtra authorities has a scheme to advertise desiltation actions.
- Farmers utilizing the silt of their fields have reported improved crop productiveness.
Travelling by way of rural Maharashtra evokes recollections of the 1972 drought, one of many worst within the state’s historical past, which prompted the launch of an enormous water conservation programme. In response to the severe shortfall of meals, fodder, and ingesting water, brought on by low monsoon rainfall from 1970 to 1973, the state authorities, with the assist of villagers, constructed hundreds of water conservation constructions to seize rainwater. Many of those constructions have been constructed on group lands as ‘commons’ and are managed by native communities.
One such construction — an earthen dam and its 21-hectare percolation tank — is positioned close to Borgaon Math village in Jalna district, about 420 kilometres east of Mumbai. Jalna lies within the semi-arid Marathwada area of Maharashtra, notorious for recurring droughts and excessive farmer suicide instances.
Over time, the percolation tank in Borgaon Math had collected silt and will now not seize and retailer rainwater and runoff. Not too long ago, villagers got here collectively to revive the waterbody as a part of a group stewardship initiative. Not solely have they desilted the tank, however they’ve additionally used the silt of their farmlands and are reporting a better crop yield. “Our percolation tank was constructed manner again in 1972 and had stuffed up with gaal [silt]. It now not might maintain any rainwater, which washed away as runoff very quickly,” says Namdeo Sahebrao Kakode, secretary of Borgaon Math’s village growth committee (VDC).
“Two years in the past, the villagers pooled their sources and desilted the tank utilizing a JCB. The farmers used the hundreds of quintals of silt that got here out of their fields. Our tank is now brimming with rainwater, and our crop productiveness has gone up manifold,” says the secretary.
Borgaon Math has 82 households and a complete agricultural land of 495 hectares. Jagan Sukhdev Joshi owns 1.6 hectares of land there. “My farmland was degraded; it had no topsoil and was crammed with small stones; therefore, no matter I cultivated, the yield remained low,” he tells Mongabay India.
“I used to be a part of the group that desilted our tank and I used 1,300 tractors-load of silt on my four-acre land,” says the farmer as he stands in his now waist-high soybean farm. He needed to pay Rs. 100 per journey of tractor to move silt to his farm, however the bills have been price it, he says.
“Earlier, my soybean manufacturing was barely eight to 10 quintals. Since making use of the silt, I’ve been capable of harvest over 40 quintals. Every quintal of soybean is bought for about Rs. 4,500,” says Joshi.
About 350 kilometres southeast of Borgaon Math lies Sagroli village in Biloli taluka of Nanded district, additionally part of the Marathwada area.
The Sagroli village pond had virtually dried up, and the groundwater, the one supply of irrigation for the farmers there, had plummeted below 150 metres. Sanskriti Samvardhan Mandal, a Nanded-based NGO, and the Division of Soil and Water Conservation, Nanded, determined to rope the villagers to desilt the pond to seize the rainwater.
Round 11,000 cubic metres of silt was faraway from the Sagroli pond, which the farmers used to stage their farmlands. And the advantages have been immense, as recorded in a report, Back from the Brink: Rejuvenating India’s Lakes, Ponds and Tanks: A Compendium of Success Stories, launched lately by a New Delhi-based assume tank, Centre for Science and Surroundings (CSE).
The report data how “the borewells close to the pond turned recharged. Groundwater elevated by greater than 100 metres. The irrigated space within the kharif and rabi seasons elevated by 32% and 43% respectively.”
Desilting tanks for twin advantages
The Maharashtra authorities has been selling community-based tank desiltation works beneath its Gaalmukt Dharan, Gaalyukt Shivar Yojana (GDGS), a scheme for silt-free water reservoirs and silt-applied farms, launched in Could 2017.
The state has 96,033 functioning water our bodies (percolation tanks) in rural areas, as famous in an October 2023 report titled Rejuvenated Water Bodies for Drought Resilience: A Look Five Years Later (2016-17 to 2020-21), collectively ready by the Mumbai-based ATE Chandra Basis and the Pune-based Watershed Organisation Belief (WOTR).
The joint research, which covers 9 percolation tanks (six ‘handled’ the place water conservation works have been carried out and three ‘management’) within the Beed and Nanded districts of Marathwada, discovered that “the desiltation exercise has resulted in a optimistic influence on the water unfold space, vegetation cowl, and gross cropped space… Availability of water for home functions additionally noticed enhancements, with handled villages experiencing a 41% development from 2013-14 to 2020-21, in comparison with 34% in management villages.”
In keeping with the report, the excavation and software of tank silt into agricultural fields affected soil texture, improved water entry, and decreased dry spells in comparison with 2013-14 (baseline yr). This resulted in elevated crop productiveness in silt-treated plots. “The silt-applied plots constantly outperformed non-silt plots in numerous villages, with web adjustments in crop productiveness starting from 10% to 45% in 2020-21 compared to 2013-14,” it notes.
“There’s immense potential for desilting tanks in Maharashtra. This will increase the provision of floor water, recharges the groundwater, and results in larger crop productiveness that interprets into larger revenue for farmers,” says Gayatri Nair Lobo, chief government officer of ATE Chandra Basis.
“The GDGS scheme, a authorities programme, brings collectively NGOs, CSR funds and village communities to work collectively to revive water our bodies. In a altering local weather, water stress is changing into an enormous concern, and decentralised options can be found in villages the place desilting and revival of ponds/ tanks may help cope with recurring droughts on account of erratic rainfall patterns,” she says.
CSE’s latest report additionally lists Maharashtra’s GDGS as an impactful state-level scheme. It notes that “the state’s deal with desilting water our bodies is essential, provided that Maharashtra has the very best share of irrigation tanks (42%) in India. These tanks play an important position in agricultural irrigation, groundwater replenishment, and offering clear ingesting water for livestock.”
Since its launch in 2017, over 71 million cubic metres of silt has been faraway from 7,504 water our bodies/ reservoirs within the state, notes CSE. The GDGS scheme was to wind up by March 2021 however has been prolonged, seeing its potential for sustainable water administration.
In April 2023, the state authorities introduced a subsidy of Rs. 37,500 to farmers to make use of 400 cubic metres of silt of their fields. This subsidy goals to incentivise farmers to take part within the desiltation course of, thereby enhancing water administration and agricultural output.
Purushottam Phadat of Borgaon Math village swears by the black silt that now covers his three-acre land. “My land had no black soil, and I couldn’t develop something on it for 5 years. Once we desilted our tank two years in the past, I took 1,100 tractors of silt and put it over my land,” says the farmer who has planted soybean this kharif season.
“Earlier, my three-acre land used to present 12-13 quintals of soybean. Since 2022, after I utilized silt, my manufacturing has jumped to 38 quintals. Since my soil high quality has improved, water consumption for irrigation has additionally come down,” says Phadat. “I spent Rs. 1.80 lakh (Rs. 180,000) in transporting gaal and making use of on my fields, nevertheless it was price paying,” he provides.
In keeping with Kakode, secretary of Borgaon Math growth committee, earlier than enterprise desiltation works, a collection of conferences have been held within the village. “We took permission from the panchayat to desilt our percolation tank. We then enlisted the assist of farmers, who have been able to pitch in financially and in addition by way of guide labour to desilt our tank. WOTR additionally supported us in the whole train,” he says.
Drought-proofing by desilting tanks
Desilting of group water our bodies helps construct drought resilience, claims Shyam Padulkar, WOTR’s regional supervisor in Aurangabad division. For example, Borgaon Math has 50-55 dugwells (about 50 metres deep), which farmers use for irrigating their farmlands. However, throughout summer season months, the dug wells went dry, forcing the villagers to name for water tankers to fulfill their ingesting water wants until the arrival of the monsoon.
“However for the reason that desilting of the percolation tank in 2021-22, dug wells have water all by way of the yr, at the least to fulfill the ingesting water wants. Capturing rainwater within the tank has raised groundwater ranges, which maintain dug wells alive within the peak summer season months,” explains Padulkar.
Sushmita Sengupta, senior programme supervisor (water programme) with CSE, says that group involvement is the important thing to sustainable water administration on the village stage. “Revival and upkeep of water our bodies in rural and concrete areas may help drought-proof the nation and profit the farmers by way of elevated farm output. Lots of work is already occurring. For example, temple ponds in south India are being revived by way of group participation,” says Sengupta, who’s the lead author of CSE’s report.
“Beneath the GDGS scheme of Maharashtra, water our bodies have been revived, however devoted funds and continued mass consciousness are required for restoration works to be sustainable. The central authorities has launched Mission Amrit Sarovar, which is an effective programme to rejuvenate water our bodies, nevertheless it doesn’t speak about funds. It’s an umbrella mission that covers the water our bodies beneath totally different state programmes,” she provides.
Addressing challenges
Neighborhood-managed irrigation tanks have an enormous potential to rework rural Maharashtra, as identified by numerous reviews. NITI Aayog has additionally famous the advantages of desilting of water our bodies in Maharashtra, which has elevated water holding capability and improved natural carbon within the soil after silt software. The realm beneath cultivation of rabi and kharif crops has reported a rise, and there was a discount within the per-acre price of fertilisers and a rise in farmers’ revenue.
Nevertheless, to make a noticeable influence on the state or nationwide stage, some points must be addressed, in line with sector specialists.
A major roadblock in the whole train of desilting and revival of water our bodies is an absence of credible knowledge on the precise variety of water our bodies in rural and concrete areas of the nation, says Sengupta. “In every state, or inside totally different areas of a state, a water physique has its personal native identify and classification — a tank, lake, pokhar, pukur, baoli, and so on. These water our bodies come beneath totally different authorities, and sometimes, they’re nobody’s accountability. Water our bodies which can be ‘commons’ are nobody’s baby. This must be addressed urgently,” she says.
India has over two million (2,424,540) water bodies, in line with the nation’s first census of those water sources, revealed in 2023. Over 97% of those are positioned in rural areas. “However this quantity is an underestimation as not all water our bodies have been recorded within the census. A complete database of water our bodies must be ready and made out there on a dashboard,” says Sengupta.
The joint research by ATE Chandra Basis and WOTR additionally factors out that since these water our bodies don’t seem to belong to any explicit group, the dumping of market waste, family rubbish, and township waste is a typical apply. Untreated wastewater typically flows into these ponds.
“Submit desiltation and revival of a water physique, its upkeep and administration are essential for sustainability. That’s the reason native villagers should be concerned as stakeholders and their contribution is vital,” says Lobo of ATE Chandra Basis.
“We have now discovered that by way of farmers’ participation, the usual working price of desilting actions comes down from Rs. 120-200 per cubic metre to Rs. 30-35 per cubic metre. Tank committees must be fashioned for governance and administration of desilted percolation tanks,” she provides.
It’s important that water is judiciously, effectively, and equitably used and the standard of the useful resource (water physique) is protected with the intention to mitigate local weather dangers. The gram panchayat or a Water Person Affiliation could be mandated and its capacities constructed to imagine “Stewardship of the Water Physique,” recommends the joint report by ATE Chandra Basis and WOTR.
“As soon as a water physique is revived and water turns into out there, additional care needs to be offered in order that the marginalised and susceptible communities within the village additionally profit from it. Usually, poor households can’t afford transportation prices of silt to their farmlands and wish monetary assist,” says Padulkar.
This story is supported by the Promise of Commons Media Fellowship 2024, specializing in the importance of commons and its group stewardship.
Banner picture: Namdeo Sahebrao Kakode, secretary of Borgaon Math’s village growth committee, says making use of silt has improved the well being of their crops. Picture by Nidhi Jamwal.
