Farm ponds fetch rich benefits

‘Farmers in arid regions can sell fish and get water to irrigate crop’

Fish being harvested at a farm pond in Vannivelanpatti near T. Kallupatti in Madurai district on Tuesday. Photo: G. Moorthy

While most farmlands in T. Kallupatti in the district remain arid, one farmer is a happy man.

M. Karuthan of Vannivelanpatti near T. Kallupatti has two farm ponds in his one-acre land, where he is growing fish, and he has already started reaping the benefits.

“I had let 1,500 African catfish into one pond 90 days back and have already caught and sold around 100 of them, each weighing a kilogram, for Rs.10,000. I am expecting better returns when I harvest and sell more fish in a few days,” Mr. Karuthan said.

Though the region has not received substantial and continuous rainfall in the last three years, the ponds in his field are full.

“The soil here is clayey which ensures that water does not drain away. If it rains for a couple of hours, the pond immediately fills up and I occasionally pump water from a nearby channel into the pond with a motor,” he said.

K. Suruli Bommu, Assistant Director of Agriculture at Kallupatti, said while Mr. Karuthan initially had only one farm pond, its benefits prompted him to get another pond dug in his farm recently.

“While the department has set a target for 175 farm ponds to be dug in this area, work is currently under way on 60 ponds,” he noted.

Mr. Karuthan said water collected in the pond had helped irrigate crops. “I have guava, orange, amla and sapotta trees which have given a good yield this year since water was available from the pond,” he said.

“While fish provide a substantial income to the farmers, water stored in ponds also helps them irrigate crops,” said Jaisingh Gnanadurai, Joint Director of Agriculture. He said farmers could either approach the village panchayats or the Agriculture Department officials of the area with a proposal for digging farm ponds.

“Under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, workers will be allotted to dig farm ponds in the fields. This way, the farmers don’t have to spend anything,” he said.

In Madurai district, there were 130 farm ponds, and 560 ponds were now being dug.

“Hardly 10 farmers have, however, stored water and are harvesting fish. More awareness is needed in this regard and we are trying to achieve a target of 2,520 farm ponds in the district,” Mr. Gnanadurai said.