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Page 1 of 2 By Ratna Bharali Taukdar Thousands of farmers in Borigog-Barbhag block, in lower Assam’s Nalbari district, joined hands to dredge a 15-km stretch of a water channel that had blocked and flooded farmlands across 50 villages. For 25 years, farmers had abandoned work on their waterlogged lands. Now they are back in business and busy planning two crops a year
 Masraf (extreme right) and Jiyaur (second from the right) with two other villagers. For 19-year-old Jiayur Rahman of Borjawrihati village, Borigog-Barbhag block in lower Assam’s Nalbari district, witnessing his family farming their lands after 25 long years was an amazing experience. For two-and-a-half decades the land was waist-deep in water, filled with sand and silt during the peak agricultural season. Older members of the family had to migrate to urban areas each winter to work as seasonal migrant labour. Jiayur himself was forced to give up his studies and go in search of a job. The son of a farmer, he had heard that they used to farm the land, but he had never seen anyone actually do it. This year, his father, who owns 14 bighas of agricultural land, was able to grow boro rice (winter crop) on the entire farm. He is expecting at least 15-20 mounds (one mound= 40 kg) of paddy from each bigha of land. He also plans to cultivate sali paddy (summer crop) as soon as the boro rice harvest is over, in May. The seven-member family is expecting a bumper crop. Sayed Masraf Ali, another villager, owns only a tiny patch (1.5 bighas) of cultivable land on which he has planted boro rice. He too has plans of growing sali rice in June. With the two-season crop he may not produce surplus food, but it will be enough to feed his seven-member family throughout the year. Like Masraf and Rahman, thousands of poor families in at least 50 villages were forced to abandon working their ancestral lands two-and-a-half decades ago as a result of serious waterlogging. The problem was solved when thousands of farmers came together to dredge a 15-km stretch of the 80-km-long water channel known as Ghogra-jan which originates in the hills of Bhutan and flows through the districts, connecting to huge beels (swamplands) called Singimari and Barali. It finally meets the Baralia river. The farmer volunteers also cleared the surrounding paddy fields -- 30,000 bighas of land -- that had been overrun by weeds. For years, Ghogra-janwas the natural irrigation system for scores of small and medium farmers who used water from the channel to irrigate their paddy fields. With stable production, the region was considered one of the more prosperous areas in the district. A number of fishermen also relied on the channel for their livelihood. In 1984, however, the jan (rivulet) became blocked at Boromboi point, near Borjawrihati village following a breach in the embankment of the Nona river that dumped huge quantities of sand and silt in the jan. Free flow of water was disrupted, severely affecting agricultural lands in 50 villages along the border areas of Kamrup and Nalbari districts. Although the initial problem was waterlogging, with the passage of time the farmlands were invaded by wild aquatic weeds, locally known as pani-bhotra or amarlata, making them completely useless for any kind of agriculture. The dredging and clearing by the farmers has revived 30,000 bighas of land belonging to 5,000 families. The farmers had virtually no high-tech support; they relied on their own experience and manual labour. Thousands of farmers dug up blocked channels with their hoes, in waist-deep water. They then went on to clear the surrounding land. The work was completed within three months -- October to December 2008. And the impact has been tremendous! The keen farmers immediately decided to cultivate winter paddy on 8,000 bighas of land, in January this year. They are expecting 15-20 mounds of paddy from each bigha. The harvesting will shortly be completed and the land made ready for the summer crop. “If everything goes all right we will have a bumper crop this summer in these areas. If farmers get 15 mounds of paddy per bigha, on average, we will be able to produce 450,000 mounds, or 180,000quintals of paddy in one season. If farmers go in for a double crop, production will double. Thus, there will be a spurt in rice production in the entire stretch,” says Dibakar Deka, a local youth. The dredging has also helped local fishermen. When the jan was blocked fishermen too were forced to take up daily-wage jobs. The uncertainty of this work meant that people began making and selling local liquor to earn money, Deka adds. The clearing initiative was spearheaded by a group of local youth under the banner of the Gramya Vikash Mancha (GVM) that arranged funds from agencies like ActionAid. The money was used to make payments to local people in the form of daily wages at the rate of Rs 100 per person per day against their physical labour. GVM has also tied up with the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust for further activities. “We have received a grant of Rs 59 lakh from Sir Dorabji Tata Trust to support the people’s initiative of dredging and clearing remaining parts of Ghogra-jan andothersuch channels, as well as affected farmlands. Accordingly, we have drawn up a three-phase plan of action to undertake channel-dredging and weed-clearing schemes in five clusters in Baksa and Nalbari districts, covering 40 villages. The work is likely to start shortly,” says Prithwi Bhusan Deka, President, GVM. Contact
No 1 Bardhanara (Padumkuwari Chowk)
Nalbari district
Nalbari 781350
Assam
Tel: 91-3664-258137 Infochange News & Features, June 2009 |
