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Two hundred farmers in Nashik district of Maharashtra have formed a cooperative to harness water and irrigate their fields
The village of Pimpalnare (total population: 2,600) in Maharashtra's Nashik district was like any other village in the state. A minor irrigation scheme was initiated here by the government in 1983; it took all of four years to complete construction of a small dam. Then it was found that the catchment was unable to fill even 25% of the reservoir, which had a capacity of 80 million cubic feet (mcft). Worse, the canal was ineffective in carrying even the little water accumulated in the reservoir. So the water had to be discharged into the river which was at a lower level than the reservoir. Neither the canal nor the river served the irrigation purposes of the farmers, as about half the water was wasted. The farmers lost out on their rabi (winter) crop and had to depend on kharif (monsoon) farming of bajra, groundnut, urad and paddy. Many farmers fell into the debt trap; some migrated to cities in search of work. From January to June there wasn't even enough drinking water in the village. Around the mid-'90s, the farmers of Pimpalnare decided to take action. They had learnt of the government's moves to encourage farmers' participation in water management. Two hundred farmers from the village got together to form the Shriram Water Users Cooperative Society Ltd, Pimpalnare, in April 1995. They made plans to convey water from the reservoir to their fields through PVC pipelines, thereby reducing water loss. Nineteen groups of around 10 farmers were formed. Each set up an electric pump at the reservoir that pumped water through a PVC pipeline out to the fields. A 160 HP electric transformer was bought for the increased power needs. The farmers saw that a number of small streams and rivulets along the pipeline drained away precious rainwater. So they came up with the idea of using the pumps placed at the reservoir to also lift rainwater from these water bodies. To carry this water to the reservoir, T-connections were constructed along the pipeline. During the monsoons the electric pumps from the reservoir are dismantled and placed along the pipeline where rainwater from the small streams is collected. The water now flows in the reverse direction, filling the reservoir. After the monsoons, the pumps are dismantled from the small water sources and placed at the reservoir to draw water for the fields. Likewise, water from a percolation tank a kilometre from the village could be lifted and conveyed through the pipeline into the reservoir. And so the society set up an electric pump and transformer at the percolation tank, where water was diverted by pipeline to the reservoir. Since the implementation of these schemes in 1997-98, the availability of water from the reservoir has increased from 25% to 70%. Now, instead of just 15-20 mcft, the reservoir holds about 50-60 mcft of water. In fact, nothing stops the reservoir from being completely filled except the frequent power cuts that make it difficult to run the pumps at crucial times during the monsoons. With about a three-fold increase in the availability of water, the acreage under irrigation has increased five-fold, from 100 hectares to 500-600 hectares. The acreage under grapes, during both the kharif and rabi seasons, which used to be only two hectares before the scheme, increased to 55 hectares. Similarly, the acreage under vegetables increased from 30 hectares to 225 hectares. The major thrust has been on cash crops like grapes, tomatoes and other vegetables. Traditional crops like wheat and chickpea received a boost too, as also rain-fed crops like paddy, bajra and groundnut. Water-saving methods like drip irrigation were used for grape cultivation. Today, they earn a hefty Rs 1 lakh per hectare and recovered their capital costs within the first two years of improved farm incomes. The total cost of the project worked out to Rs 1.15 crore, a sum shared by members of the society. Depending on the length of the pipeline from the reservoir to their fields, and an electric pump of suitable capacity, the cost to each group varied between Rs 4 lakh to Rs 12 lakh. Individual contributions varied between Rs 40,000 and Rs 90,000. This was raised either through personal savings or by selling assets like land or gold. An important aspect of this collective effort is that members of the society who were not beneficiaries under the original minor irrigation government scheme were also accommodated. This increased the number of farmers and the acreage covered by the scheme. -- Surekha Sule
(Surekha Sule is a Mumbai-based freelance journalist.) InfoChange News & Features, March 2004
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