Author: Sushant Kulkarni
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: January 1, 2012
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/snapshots-of-change/894273/0

A village learns to save water to conquer the vagaries of climate change

Sharada Madne, a 55-year-old labourer working in a pomegranate orchard at Sarole Pathar, a village of 300 families in Nagar district, animatedly narrates how a village vulnerable to whimsical rainfall about 20 years ago has come close to doing the unthinkable—conquering the vagaries of climate change. With watershed management, soil conservation measures, weekly agriculture advisory based on weather condition and a voluntary ban on water-intensive crops and borewells, Sarole Pathar has not just seen a turnaround of farming fortunes but, perhaps more importantly, a restoration of their traditional social fabric—villagers have more or less stopped thinking of migrating to cities.

Sarole Pathar is one of the 25 villages under the project Climate Change Adaptation being implemented by Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR) and funded by NABARD and The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation since 2009 in Sangamner and Akole talukas. Building up on the foundation of the work done under Indo-German Watershed Development Project between 1996 and 2001, the project aims to make these 25 villages models of eco-friendly, sustainable development.

“I remember three consecutive years in the mid-80s when either of the kharif or rabi crop had failed due to lack of rains. We had just four wells in our village,” says 50-year-old Changdeo Ghule, a farmer. “That was when many people from surrounding villages had to migrate to cities. But now we have 104 open wells and all of them have water. We used to have wheat, jowar and bajra in our fields, with no surety of yield. Now we grow onions, pomegranate, potato, lintels and productivity of other crops has also gone up.”

Rajendra Zagade, the project coordinator with WOTR says, “The stone barrages on the slopes built with villagers’ participation have helped in harvesting of water and has also stopped the erosion due to the water running off. This has stopped silting of the dams down the slope. Much more water is available in the wells in plain areas.”

It was also observed that even when water was available, farmers were using traditional methods of farming with rampant usage of fertilisers to worsen the situation. “We installed automatic weather parameter measurement systems in every village. We have three dedicated agronomists for each of the clusters of eight villages in project area. Agriculture tips are issued weekly to every village based on these measurements and soil parameters. People wait for the tips almost like we wait for movies releases every Friday,” smiles Zagade.