With Southwest monsoon becoming active and with Nagapattinam district experiencing rain for the last few days, the possibilities for fuller utilisation of the farm pond scheme being executed by the Agricultural Engineering Department seems bright.
The Agricultural Engineering Department is in the process of creating 812 farm ponds in all the eleven blocks: Tirumarugal, Nagapattinam, Keelaiyur, Thalaignayiru, Vedaranyam, Kilvelur, Mayiladuthuai, Kuttalam, Sembanarkovil, Sirkazhi and Kollidam. The State Government has planned to create 10,000 farm ponds across Tamil Nadu, at an expenditure of ₹ 100 crore.
“With effect from this year, the scheme has been made attractive with cent percent subsidy, and hence the encouraging patronage. Till last year, the farmers had to contribute 10 % of the cost under the scheme,” Balasubramaniam, Assistant Executive Engineer of Agricultural Engineering Department, Nagapattinam Division, said, adding that about 80 beneficiaries in the district have already been identified within a week of publicising the scheme.
The NABARD has specified that the farm ponds must be dug up in 10% of the farmland owned by the beneficiary. If the extent of farmland owned by the beneficiary is one hectare, a farm pond measuring 30 x 30 metres with a depth of two metres would be dug up. In case the land owned by the beneficiary is one acre, an area measuring 20 x 20 metres with three metres depth will be dug up.
The peg marks are being made one metre beyond the area marked to be dug up so that the additional area will serve as a walkway and prevent the side wall from getting damaged at times of heavy rainfall, Mr. Balasubramaniam said.
The farm pond will be useful in saving the life of the crops from the crucial duration of milk-stage to mature form, he explained.
As per the last count made in 2018, there were 2,884 farm ponds in the district of which 80 percent were in usable conditions. The farm ponds were dug over the years under different schemes that included
Swaraj Grameen Rozgar Yojana, Rastriya Sam Vikas Yojana, pulses development programme, rainwater harvesting scheme, and artificial recharge scheme.
So far, farm ponds were dug to a depth of only 1.5 metres, and the silt formation has been a usual occurrence, Mr. Balasubramaniam said. The department has forwarded a proposal for specific funding to those owning farm ponds for silt removal, he said.
