Ranganathan, known to his friends as Ranga, his 11-year-old son, his wife Kamlamma and their hired labourer are hard at work putting in more stakes for their cucumber crop.
The family has recently entered into a buyback contract with a local pickles company that supplies quality hybrid seeds and then guarantees to buy back the produce. This year Ranga is expecting a record harvest that will net him in a record 25,000 Rupees, of which Rs.20,000 is profit. This excellent return is way beyond his family’s highest hopes and allows them to radically revise their plans for the future. None of this would have been possible if Ranga had not bought into an innovative scheme that supplies farmers with small-scale KB Drip, irrigation systems. This drip system allows farmers to water their crops all year round.
The Struggle
Ranga, who lives in the village of Chikkannahalli, Tumkur district, Karnataka, talks about the days when he did not have a KB drip on his farm. Life was infinitely more difficult for him than it is today. Despite owning 1.5 acres of land, he struggled financially as he could only grow crops during the rainy season. Even in a good year, he was able to harvest barely enough ragi and groundnut for his family. If the rains failed, then the crops did too, leaving the family destitute. Ranga scrounged for work wherever he could find it – on roadsides, construction sites or as a labourer hired to work by the hour on other farms. The family never knew where the next meal would come from; there was little to eat and no security of income and Ranga was unable to plan a future for himself or his children.
Desperate to raise money, Ranga borrowed Rs. 6000 from his cousin and bought two cows. He hoped to sell milk to provide cash income to meet the daily needs of the family. The cows brought some improvement to his income, but not enough to build a secure future. Moreover, he carried the burden of paying back the loan to his cousin. It seemed that there was nothing that Ranga could do to break out of the vicious cycle of subsistence and insecurity.
The Solution
However, in April 2004 the Bio Energy Research Institute (BERI) and International Development Enterprises (IDE), began to implement a new irrigation project to solve the plight of small landholders. The project proposed a novel model by which farmers organized themselves into groups of 3 to 8 members that formed itself into a Water Users Association (WUA). A bore well was allotted to each WUA on a cost-sharing basis. The cost of the bore well and water distribution line was born by the project while the investment in a Krishak Bandhu Drip system (KB Drip) and Water Tank, amounting to Rs. 7,000.00, was met by the farmers themselves. .
In 2005 Ranga joined his local WUA and installed a KB Drip on 0.5 acres of his land. This proved to be a real turning point in his life. To become member of the WUA, Ranga had to take out a loan of Rs.7,000 at a monthly interest rate of 2 percent.
The immediate impact of undertaking irrigated cultivation was that Ranga and his wife were suddenly free to work full time on their farm. Ranga felt a new incentive to work on his own land and Kamlamma had the satisfaction of directly contributing to the household income. Another hugely important impact was that the family, who had hardly ever consumed vegetables, now enjoyed them as a major part of their staple diet.
The Triumph
The first irrigated crops that Ranga cultivated included a mixed harvest of tomato and ladyfinger. This was his first experience of commercial cultivation for the market. Ranga and Kamlamma got Rs. 3,000 net from these crops, of which Rs. 2,000 was paid back to the bank and the rest spent on meeting family needs. For his second crop, Ranga grew a mix of groundnut and button rose. The groundnut crop did well but the button rose crop failed and had to be replaced by tomato. From these Ranga and Kamlamma earned a net profit of Rs. 4,500 and within less than a year they were able to earn an astonishing net income of Rs. 7,500 from their 0.5 acres plot.
The family are now preparing to harvest a bumper crop of gherkin which they hope will not only solve their financial problems but will also allow them to be more confident about their ability to earn money. Ranga says proudly, “A year back I was a hired labourer while today I’m hiring others to work on my field. We are planning to build a house, something we couldn’t even have dreamt about before”.
Ranga is one of a growing number of farmers who have benefited from this multi-partner project that is hailed as a developmental model for the future. .
