Share water; reap rich harvest

Thangegedukunta (Anantapur): The success story of Obuladevacheruvu mandal is linked to the sharing spirit of farmers, who shared their surplus water with other farmers whose crops are on the verge of withering. The district administration provided men and material which saved the crops in 27,000 odd acres, which are ready for harvesting, some in October and the rest in November.

This is a story of united effort, coordination and the spirit of sharing of farmers and also those farmers who believed in farm ponds which came to their rescue. Sowing was done in 15,004 acres in June and 12,289 acres in July. Harvesting of the crop will be undertaken in October and November respectively.

The District Water Management Agency (DWAMA) and the departments of Agriculture and Minor irrigation were instrumental in wetting the groundnut crop, which was on the verge of withering, and saved groundnut crop in 27,293 acres spread in 14 villages in Obuladevacheruvu mandal with the help of borewells, farm ponds and even water sheds in the district.

District Collector Kona Sasidhar pressed teams of officials by making them in-charges of each of the 14 villages and pressed them into service by providing 309 rain guns, 1600 irrigation pipes, 350 sprinklers and 125 diesel pumpsets for pumping water from 500 borewells and farm ponds.

As many as 500 farmers having water sources sufficient to share, supplied water to 2,200 farmers, who had bores but no water, for wetting the crops of each farmer in an extent of five acres on an average, thus saved their crop from withering.

Thimmappa, a farmer of Thangedukunta village, having a borewell with more than sufficient water shared his surplus water with other farmers. A beaming Thimmappa speaking to The Hans India said that he was very happy that he could share surplus water with other farmers and was able to save 20 acres of crops of his cofarmers by being instrumental in wetting the parched groundnut crops in three different spells.

He said that crops in 1,910 acres could be saved in his village by the efforts of tahsildhar Anjeneyulu and MPDO Nagaraju, agriculture officer Satyanarayana and others in the chain, who made arrangements to bring water from farm ponds of farmers and borewells, through pipes and pumpsets.

Venkatappa, a farmer of Sunnampalle village, who had just three acres of groundnut crop speaking to this reporter said that he had almost given up hope when his crop started showing signs of withering when rain guns were pressed into action by diverting water from the borewell of another farmer in the village.

DWAMA project director A Nagabhushanam told The Hans India that the crop rescue team armed with rain guns, pump sets, pipes and sprinklers was able to rescue crops in four lakh acres due to the District Collector's determination.