G.S.G. Ayyangar, Special Officer from the Centre’s Jal Shakti Abhiyan, has appealed to the farmers to look at alternatives to mango crop, such as guava, jamun, sapota and pomegranate, apart from employing drip irrigation to save every drop of water.
The official visited Pulicherla and Ramachandrapuram mandals during his current tour of Chittoor district. At Anuppalle village, located 15 km southwest of Tirupati, he inspected the farm pond developed with ₹2.14 lakh by a farmer Nagi Reddy. With low rainfall, the farmer manages to grow mango and sapota with the help of drip system, thus getting better yield with low water utilisation.
His farm pond has helped in recharge of borewells in the vicinity. The official inspected another farm pond measuring 20m x 20m in the nearby forest area abutting Gokulapuram, which provides water to animals and birds, besides helping groundwater recharge. Farmer Mohan Reddy, who employs drip irrigation to wet his 350 Benisha mango trees in his five-acre farm, admitted to have seen a quantum leap in profit from ₹70,000 last year to ₹1.50 lakh this year.
Farm ponds
Addressing the farmers later, Mr. Ayyangar laid emphasis on using less groundwater to achieve higher yield. “Chittoor district has a record of digging 1.06 lakh farm ponds and plans are afoot to develop another one lakh in the future,” he said. With every farmer going in for mango orchards, the prices have plummeted due to oversupply, observed District Collector N. Bharat Gupta, who also advised the farmers to go for alternative horticultural crops, which of late are in great demand. He offered to supply these saplings under MGNREGA and asked every household to dig rainwater harvesting pit to conserve the running water.
Speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Ayyangar said the farmers need to be educated on growing alternative crops, which would go a long way in increasing revenue.
SRI method
“Growing paddy in System of Rice Intensification (SRI) and similar method in sugarcane will bring down water usage. Growing multiple horticultural crops will also help,” he said, adding that a three-year programme would be developed to improve groundwater situation in the state.
Mr. Ayyangar later held a review meeting in Chittoor on his observations over the last two days and will visit Nindra mandal on Wednesday.
Project Directors Naga Raju (DWMA) and Y. Vidyashankar (APMIP), DWMA Assistant Project Director Srinivasa Prasad, RWS Superintending Engineer Venu, Joint Director (Sericulture) Aruna Kumari, Deputy Directors Saraswati (Horticulture) and Sankaraiah (Groundwater) took part.
