Successful watershed management meant re-greening a sandscape in Desertified Anantapur
Successful watershed management meant re-greening a
sandscape in Desertified Anantapur
Digital Discourse Foundation:
By Malini Shankar
Anantapur
in Andhra Pradesh seems to be recovering from the chronic drought,
desertification induced moisture stress, and repeated crop losses / famine
after three decades of sustained ecological interventions to replenish the
ground water table.
Decades
of sustained efforts in watershed management has started reversing the process
of desertification. Today the ground water table is significantly replenished.
Vast stretches of the ground have been re-greened and this has restored soil
moisture.
This is one of the check dams constructed by AFEC under the Integrated watershed management Programme of the Government of India |
The Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh was declared by the
Andhra Pradesh State Government as being in the process
of desertification in 1994. It was thought that the provisions
of the newly legislated Convention on Biological Diversity
(CBD) – following the Rio Earth Summit of 1992 will be the
guiding light to mitigate this debilitating process. The
government and NGOs together undertook a slew of
measures to “combat desertification”.
Desertification is a debilitating calamity that renders unfit the
agricultural landscape and agro economy. It pummels lives,
livelihoods, landscape and livestock...like it did in Anantapur:
taking a severe toll on public health, livelihood and food
security, water and sanitation, and the environment. The
ground water table plummeted to 300 metres below the
ground in some places of Andhra Pradesh’s largest district
with sand dunes making an appearance. That was the real
shock. Crops wilted with recurrent droughts ushering famine;
aridity wilted even dry land crops like native millets, oilseeds
nuts, cereals and pulses. The Administration and the Media
was not sure if sand dunes formation or starvation was more
sensational, such was the bleak challenge.
Indeed if the provisions of the Convention on Biological
Diversity had to be redeemed; it would certainly have to be
sustainable agro ecological interventions instead of wholly
engineering solutions like construction of check dams,
contour bunding, construction of farm ponds and percolation
tanks and other rain water harvesting infrastructure. It called
for the empanelled NGOs to think out of the box.
Despite Climate Change and despite receiving very low
rainfall - Anantapur - being in the rain shadow area of both Southwest and Northeast monsoons - Anantapur’s location just south of the “Jwalapuram” caves that were formed by the ash fall of the Lake Toba Super volcanic explosion of 74000 years ago nevertheless - left this arid landscape very fertile.
Today after successful watershed management the area
boasts of very rich and diverse horticulture, dairy diversity,
and agricultural produce including fruits like Mango (Mangifera indica), Guava (Psidium guajava), Gooseberry (Michelia emblica), Java fruits(Syziium cuminii), Sapota (Manilkara zapota), Citroen (Citrus medica), Custard Apple (Annona reticulata) and trees with rich green foliage like Tamarind (Tamarindus indicus), Pongamia (Pongamia pinnata) and Neem (Azadarichta indica). Agricultural diversity includes all vegetables ranging from Aubergines to Zucchini, millets,
oilseeds
some varieties of rice, cereals and pulses etc.
Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre AFEC took the lead in
husbanding fruit orchards that thrive in a dry arid landscape.
These watersheds tuned out to be naturally induced ground
water reservoirs, after the successful replenishment of ground
water. You may wish to watch a documentary film Re-
greening the Sandscape Part 1 on this link: and meet the beneficiaries of the perceptive agro ecological schemes in Part 2 on this link
Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre (AFEC) took up multi-stakeholder participation for agro ecological interventions. Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre took up these interventions in six Mandals or sub districts of Anantapur: Settur, Raapthadu, Kalyandurg, Atmakur, Kundurpe, and Kuderu Mandals of Anantapur. AFEC’S interventions include:
·
Restoration of
soil nutrition and soil moisture;
·
Rain water
harvesting;
·
replenishing the
ground water table;
· Dryland farming through
cultivation of native drought resilient crops like millets, oilseeds, lentils, horticultural
produce, etc.
·
Watershed
management by raising fruit orchards
·
Supply of Biogas
stoves,
·
Instituted 58,050 farmers’ cooperatives,
· Micro finance for women farmers harvesting
native Dryland crops like millets and oilseeds to make traditional snacks as
native nutrition which supplements the families’ farm incomes)
· Micro finance for
dairy farmers to buy native breeds of milch cows,
· Biodiverse fruit
orchards husbanded with organic farming techniques like Jivamrutha and Beejamrutha:
(These are Government of India agricultural schemes that advocate organic
farming techniques like utilisation of cow dung, vegetable and fruit peel,
molasses, egg shells, etc to create mulch and manure. Beejamrutha refers to
creation of seed banks to propagate biodiverse afforestation and recreation of
green cover)
Catchment area conservation was a win-win partnership with
farmers being given fruit saplings to augment the catchment
area. Watershed management involved rainwater harvesting,
and agro ecological interventions boosted rain-fed agriculture
in
the absence of irrigation infrastructure.
Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre (AFEC) led by Dr. Malla
Reddy for instance undertook construction of farm ponds,
percolation tanks, check dams, developed fruit orchards or
watersheds, harvested rain water, took measures to reverse
soil erosion, replenish soil moisture, restore soil nutrition,
increase green cover, thus successfully replenished ground
water table and increased soil moisture holistically, an
impossible task
in an arid desertified landscape!
Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre (AFEC) constructed
Rainwater harvesting infrastructure, created fruit orchards,
farm forests, took up afforestation, recharged dried up bore
wells, constructed check dams and farm ponds, took up
avenue tree planting, fruit orchards under watershed
management programme.
The rain water harvesting infrastructure undertaken by Accion
Fraterna Ecology
Centre includes:
- · 1,20,212 contour bunds,
- · 2,564 Stone trenches,
- · 404 gully checks / gully plugs to arrest rain water run-off,
- · 348 rock fill dams,
- · 20 Soil Moisture Conservation Gabions,
- · 10,070 water absorption trenches at foot hills,
- · 18.2109 hectares of staggered trenches,
- · 4,196 check dams,
- · 203 percolation tanks,
- ·
Recharged 7 dried
up bore-wells,
- · And built 6,616 farm ponds.
“The concept agro-ecology
is taken from the natural forest: it advocates that the farm land should not be
exposed to direct sunlight, direct rain or direct wind. So, the farm land
has to be kept covered with multiple crops for 365 days in a year. This
nurtures the biotic life of the soil, prevents soil-moisture evaporation, and
builds sustainable soil productivity in a natural manner” says Dr. Malla Reddy
in an exclusive statement given to Digital Discourse Foundation.
Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre (AFEC) created a self help group of women farmers with micro finance serving as the central activity. With micro finance being available to women farmers, they were trained in harvesting native crops like millets to make traditional / artisanal snacks as a business enterprise. The women were trained by Krishi Vigyan Kendra of Anantapur in millet snack making. The Women’s’ Self Help Group makes traditional millet based snacks and selling these against specific orders. Thus it serves the purpose of augmenting the farmers’ incomes as well as augmenting their families’ health quotients. A podcast about micro finance for these women farmers of the Sasya Mitra Self Help Group led by Mrs. Indramma in Kuderu Mandal in Anantapur can be heard on this link:
Women like Dharani, Sarala, Venkateshwaramma, Sandhya and Parvathi are among the 30 successful and very enterprising members of the Sasya Mitra Self Help Group led by Mrs. Indramma. These women are trained in making traditional and healthy snacks from native crops like millets and oilseeds. The Self Help Group takes business orders for making the artisanal snacks. The women members then harvest or procure the farm produce - millets or oilseeds as the case maybe and prepare traditional snacks and short eats with grandma’s recipes.
“The healthy snacks are a sure fire means to mitigate health
disorders and complications arising from endocrine disorders
like hypertension and Diabetes” says Sarala. Sandhya a very
talented home maker from the farming community not only
relishes making millet biscuits but also sings harvest folk
songs with gusto. With the income she earns from making
traditional snacks, 30 years old Mrs. Dharani saved some
money to invest In a small business / petty shop where she
trades in henna stencils, embroidered ware, undergarments
for women and children and children’s’ toys.
NGOs constructed small, sustainable check dams and farm
ponds in synch with the hydrology of the area to collect the
modest rainfall that occurred in Anantapur. The NGOs also
constructed farm ponds and rain water percolation tanks to
collect rain water.
Nagaraju, a watershed management committee member in the
Yerraborepalli village Settur Mandal of Anantapur district told
Digital Discourse Foundation in an exclusive interview “They
give us daily wage employment for these kind of watershed
development activities. That gives us our bread and butter. I
work on activities like contour bunding tank construction, rain
water channeling, watering plants etc for which I earn on an
average of 3 – 4000 Rupees a month. I also work as an
agricultural labourer to supplement income. There is indeed
profit in mango cultivation but the waiting period for the first
harvest is a minimum 5 years. So for the short term I rely on
ground nut cultivation.”
“The hydrology complements the collection of the meager rainfall. It has been a success as now … after a good spell of rainfall we get flowing fresh drinking water in the check dams. And these check-dam and farm ponds help irrigate our horticultural farms… today we get ground water at a depth of less than 20 metres when compared to yester years when we had to dig the earth to about 300 metres. We farmers are now happy as we grow diverse fruits like custard apple mangos, tamarind, Jamun, Guava, Gooseberry, Ber and Sapota. We also grow groundnut and sesame seeds” says Ramakrishna Reddy a retired postman who serves in the watershed committee of AFEC in Yerragunta village Raapthadu Mandal of the Anantapur district. This is the kind of traditional multi cropping that is native to the arid, chronically desertified area. This is a true manifestation of “Climate Smart” Agriculture.
Fruit orchards in natural farming methods in the “watersheds”
gave farmers a monetary stake in catchment area
conservation for ground water replenishment. Organic
manures collected from leaf litter of native trees helped
harvest a rich fruit yield in the fruit orchards or - watersheds -
in the Civil Society parlance. Plantation of native fruits like
Mangoes (Mangifera indica), Jambo (Syzijium cuminii), Sapota
/ Chikoo (Manilkara zapota) Amla (Michelia emblica), Guava
(Psidium guajava), Papaya (Carica papaya), Pomegranate,
gave farmers the mutually beneficial instrument to replenish
ground water table while cultivating fruits orchards. The
undergrowth that flourishes under the agro diverse fruit crops
helped nourish the soil and percolate the rainfall, replenishing
the ground water table and restoring the soil nutrition as well
as soil moisture. With soil moisture being replenished the soil
Organic Carbon improved making the agricultural fields
“paradise pastures” in the sandscape.
Kishnamma is a senior citizen living in Yerragunta village of
Raapthadu Mandal in Anantapur district. She is a senior
citizen, a spinster who has nurtured over 200 sapota fruit
trees in her ancestral plot of land which is blessed with access to a Farm Pond constructed by AFEC. She says “nurturing the fruit trees gives her peace of mind and livelihood security”.
Pot drip irrigation (dispensed now in favour of sprinkler
irrigation) gave employment opportunities to marginalized
rural women. Huge five Litre clay pots made by rural women and laced at the roots / pit of the saplings were watered thrice
daily by the rural folk at the employ of NGOs like
AFEC, SEDS and MYRADA etc which gave employment
opportunities to these rural women. Small holes at the bottom
of these clay pots ensured the water would trickle down in
drops to the roots of the young saplings providing moisture
and sustained water supply to the growing fruit tree saplings.
Pot drip irrigation was a run-away success. Women got
meager incomes and help from self help groups. Pot drip
irrigation sustained water supply to the fruit saplings in the
orchards which fetched a handsome remuneration to the
farmers. With fruit orchard output like mangoes and Sapota
fetching sustainable and perennial incomes to the famers, the
farmers were indeed more than willing to experiment
successfully with multiple fruits as part of multi crop orchards.
This helped diverse microbes act on soil moisture retention,
restore soil nutrition and in the process restore atmospheric
moisture and combat
desertification.
“With Multi-cropping the roots
are diverse, because of the diversity of root, you have diverse microorganisms
in the soil. Because of the diverse
microorganisms in the soil, soil becomes porous or permeable, which allows the
water to percolate when it rains” Dr. T.V. Ramachandra Limnologist, Fresh water
scientist and leader of the Wetlands and Energy Research group in the Centre
for Ecological Sciences at the premier Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore
told Digital Discourse Foundation
acquiescing to the merit of agro ecological interventions in Anantapur
District.
Coming up in this space the full length video interview of Dr. T.V. Ramachandra Limnologist, Fresh water scientist and leader of the Wetlands and Energy Research group in the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the premier Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. Watch this space.
Gradually the soil erosion was halted and green cover
increased replenishing the ground water table. The ground
water that had depleted to 300 metres below the ground
gradually rose to 16 metres below the ground from 300
metres below the ground. That was the moment of reckoning to the civil society, the battle hardened rural populace and the state Government of Andhra Pradesh as well as Government India.
Rainwater harvesting infrastructure – includes check dams,
farm ponds, percolation tanks water shed management with
raising of fruit orchards, planting avenue trees all to collect
without run off the meager rain fall that occurs in Anantapur.
Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre AFEC in Anantapur founded
by Father Anton Ferrer and led today by Dr. Malla Reddy an
agricultural activist and development worker has constructed
many of these structures to complement the hydrology of the
landscape.
With funding from Andhra Pradesh State Government,
NABARD, and Government of India besides funding from
foreign donor agencies AFEC has mapped the desertification,
hydrology of their project areas; they undertook zero budget
natural farming, / organic farming, ecological succession of
biota, moisture stress and documented thoroughly the needs
and aspirations of the battle hardened rural populace. With
interventions like ‘Participatory Rural Appraisal and village
committees’, AFEC undertook funded interventions like
creation of fruit orchards, rain water harvesting, Dryland
farming, restoration of soil nutrition and ameliorating moisture
stress
combining it all under “agro ecological interventions”.
Dr. Malla Reddy director of AFEC / Accion Fraterna Ecology
Centre adds “The concept is very clear. Where there is green
cover there is moisture. Where the soil is exposed to sunrays
and wind there is soil erosion …” Do view the unedited
version of Dr. Malla Reddy’s (Director of AFEC) interview online.
“Watersheds” comprised of fruit orchards … fruit trees with rich
foliage like Mango, Sapota, Jamun, Guava, Gooseberry were
planted far and wide in the ‘project areas’ of AFEC. Adopting
Dryland farming techniques equates to traditional multi
cropping – of native foods like millets, oilseeds pulses and
cereals. The horticultural trees are native evergreen trees that
can survive in arid conditions with little or no rainfall. Pot drip
irrigation offered constant moisture replenishment to the tree
saplings and livelihood security to gardeners; farmers were of
course gleeful with the profits of subsidized horticulture.
Besides, the root systems of these native trees enriched the
microbial activity successfully replenishing soil moisture and
restoring soil nutrition.
Digital Discourse Foundation has made two video
Documentaries on largely successful efforts
to combat desertification
through agro ecological interventions for restoration and
replenishment of ground water table in the Anantapur district
of Andhra Pradesh.
Biodiverse natural farming brought in plantations of native trees like Pongamia pinnata, Ficus species, Neem or Azadarichta indica, Tamarind or Tamarindus indica, fruit yielding trees like Mango, Sapota, Jamun, Guava, Gooseberry, fodder yielding trees like Glyricida, and different types of grasses which help in percolating rainfall in different seasons all characterize “biodiverse multi-cropping”. Fodder banks created by these rich foliage trees gave ample dairy yield and livelihood and food security to the livestock farmers.
Dryland, Climate resilient agro ecological intervention
manifests as biodiverse multi-cropping involving fruit orchards
of native species biodiverse fruit orchards for Climate resilient
The Sri Sathya Sai Baba Trust supplied potable drinking water to the water starved and thirsty population of Rural Anantapur for decades. The Sri Sathya Sai Baba Trust also sunk bore-wells in the short term to mitigate water stress.
MYRADA undertook rain water consolidation by way of rain
water harvesting infrastructure like check dams, farm ponds
etc by making farmers stake holders in water security. Myrada
also optimized livelihood security through natural resource
management, zero budget natural farming and so on.
Agro “ecological” interventions and zero budget natural
farming besides very intense human efforts at recharging
ground water – including rain water harvesting – it appears -
is far more effective in raising the ground water that was
scandalously depleted in this chronically drought affected rain
shadow area of Southwest Andhra Pradesh. Apparently such
ecological interventions involving optimization of the
topography for harvesting rain water is far more sustainable
than dam construction. Dams have ill served the purpose of
saving water and releasing it when needed, have failed to do
flood control and generation of hydro electric power is now
completely passé given the age of renewables. This is a
lesson in sustainable growth and teaches lessons to those
who rapaciously devoured Nature’s reservoirs meant for
future generations.
Of course there is still the need for conserving fresh rain water
by investing on recycling water infrastructure, reusing grey
water for flushing and non primary water usage like
construction… A lot more of awareness needs to be created
and there is a dire need for engineering interventions like grey
water curing
infrastructure.
Photo
blogs of allied subjects that will be of interest to you are listed hereunder:
1.
Indian agricultural, horticultural, cultivars
and commercial crops
3.
Dryland Climate Smart Agriculture
4.
Watershed management in Anantapur
5.
Dryland
Agriculture is the key to watershed management!
Malini
Shankar, Digital Discourse Foundation
Further Reading:
https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/measuring-and-assessing-soils/what-soil-organic-carbon
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