District Collector Ch. Vijayamohan and Superintendent of Police A. Ravikrishna launched digging of a farm pond in Kappatralla village in Devanakonda mandal in Kurnool district on Tuesday.
The officials, who spent Monday night in the village in “Rathri Basa” programme, interacted with farmers and persuaded them to dig farm ponds in their agricultural fields to store water.
The Collector pillion-ride a motorcycle, while the helmet-borne Superintendent of Police rode it from the village to the field of a farmer Surendra, about one-and-a-half a km away, to launch digging of a farm pond.
Mr. Vijayamohan advised officials to spend a night with farmers in a village every week and strive to resolve their problems.
Three hundred and eighty five farmers, who owned less than five acres of land each in Kappatralla must be encouraged to forward applications and deploy drip and sprinkler irrigation in about 1,000 acres in the village, he told the Project Director of A.P. Micro-Irrigation Project, Devamuni.
The drought-effect can be mitigated if drip irrigation was encouraged in about 500 acres in each village, the Collector said.
Farmers owning over five acres of land must be encouraged to dig farm ponds.
Farm ponds must be dug in 230 villages covered by watersheds.
The Collector and SP performed bhoomi pooja for a percolation tank and removed mud by operating a proclain.
Mr. Vijayamohan directed DWMA Project Director Ch. Pulla Reddy to take steps to dig 10,000 farm ponds in Kurnool district.
The Collector assured sanction for construction of check dams, if jungle clearance was done in the stream adjoining the fields. The SP said efforts were being made to develop Kappatralla village, which he adopted, into a model village.
Adoni Revenue Divisional Officer Obulesu, Panchayat Raj Superintending Engineer Surendranath, Devanakonda mandal president Ramachandra Naidu and others participated.
