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Plastic bottles to check evaporation
In the peak of summer, when everyone is struggling to grab a pot of water to protect their horticulture plantations, a family at Kothapur village near Tadipatri, which owns 100 acres of land is implementing water conservation techniques and is reaping rich dividends.
Tadipatri (Anantapur): In the peak of summer, when everyone is struggling to grab a pot of water to protect their horticulture plantations, a family at Kothapur village near Tadipatri, which owns 100 acres of land is implementing water conservation techniques and is reaping rich dividends.
A large farm pond 120 by 100 metres sanctioned by the department of horticulture has proved to be a boon to this family headed by Rajasekhara Reddy a teacher by profession. He and his two brothers partnered with four more farmers to construct the pond under the Community Farm Pond scheme funded by the District Water Management Agency (DWAMA).
At a time when water is viewed as liquid gold, the farm pond has storage capacity of 6 crore l and it cater to irrigation of 100 acre multi-horticulture plantations for four months. Rains or no rains the stored water is enriching the horticulture plantations including pomegranates, guavas, sweet oranges, drum stick and grapes.
Speaking to The Hans India, Rajasekhar Reddy said that he invented a technique to check evaporation losses with a protective sheet of rafters made by plastic water bottles to prevent sun rays directly hitting the water, thereby preventing evaporation losses.
“The plastic water bottles are placed in the farm pond. They float and shield water from direct sun light. This not only minimises water evaporation but also saves the water from formation of green mass. As of now about 3 crore litres of water stored in the pond is currently being used to irrigate the 100 acre plantations,” he informed
Water from bore wells which was available in pre-summer months was used to fill the farm pond. Even if there is one good rainfall, the rain water recharges the farm ponds and boosts the ground water table. The farmers are using water conservation techniques to ensure that not a single drop of rain water is wasted.
There are three other farm ponds with a storage capacity of 50 lakh litres each.The head of the farming family said that Horticulture deputy director Subbarayudu was giving maximum support to popularise the concept of water conservation.
The farm pond resembling a large reservoir is the cynosure of all eyes even as dozens of farmers are visiting the farm pond to see the water revolution created by the farmers using water conservation, evaporation preventing techniques.
