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“Micro irrigation has brought me macro benefits!” Today Mr. Vishwanath Lakshman Jadav is a happy man: lots of farmers are now visiting his farm to learn about the success of IDE's customised micro irrigation system Hailing from Shekta village near Aurangabad in Maharashtra in India, Jadav is a diligent and prudent farmer holding three acres of land on which he primarily grows vegetable seed. His family of nine members is totally dependent on the income from the land. It was a hot sunny day a couple of years ago, when one of IDE (India)’s field staffs met Jadav in his farm. Jadav was worried and exhausted since the annual rainfall during the year was below average and more so because his well was drying up, yielding only 2000-3000 litres of water every day. In his half acre of land, Jadav had grown Indian beans and wheat; the rest of the land was lying fallow due to shortage of water. Jadav told the IDE field staff that he was worried the beans and wheat would also dry up. The IDE staff kept quiet. He watched… To save the bean crop, Jadav reluctantly dried the wheat crop. He could provide water for only 15-20 minutes per day but the crop started drying. He eventually thought of buying and installing a drip irrigation system but the initial high cost and the time required to avail of the government subsidy despaired his hopes of saving the bean crop. Over the last few days, the IDE staff had been observing Jadav and sympathising with his predicament. He felt it was high time he should come to Jadav's rescue. He collected data on available water and crop spacing and accordingly customised a design for irrigating half-acre of land with a set of micro sprinklers. As the recharge in Jadav's well was too less, so much so that a 0.5 HP pump could hardly operate for 15 minutes a day, the IDE staff advised Jadav to build a 1000-litre cement tank so that he could fetch water from another source when his well would get dry. In three days the tank was constructed and IDE's customised system started operating. IDE provided Jadav with training on how to operate and maintain the system. After about eight days, the plants turned green; flowers bloomed. Jadav got a bumper yield of beans. The maturity period of the crop also reduced by 15 days, resulting in the advantage of premature harvest. Following a trend analysis of the productivity and income from Rabi and Kharif crops for a period of 4 years, it is obvious from the table below that Jadav earned more from his half-acre plot with micro irrigation than from his 2.5 acre plot with flood irrigation:
Today, a lot of farmers visit Jadav's farm to learn about IDE's customised micro irrigation system. His status in the village has increased and he is being invited by a number of officials from the government and NGOs on different occasions to share his experiences. Wherever he goes, he proudly tells everybody "micro irrigation has brought me macro benefits". Source: International Development Enterprises (India) International Development Enterprises (IDE) is a leading authority on the development of small-scale irrigation and, more importantly, on the mass dissemination of simple, efficient, appropriate and environmentally sustainable technologies in developing countries through the private sector and NGOs. << country/story review |
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