Development Matters

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Case1-August-2017

Reviving Traditional Ahar & Pyne System Irrigation

The Munger district is located in Southern Bihar. The district headquarters is Munger city. It is located on the south banks of river Ganges. It is a traditional settlement having historical references. Five districts have been partitioned from its original administrative boundaries. Presently in this district, there are nine blocks, 100 Panchayats, and 858 villages. It lies within the seismic zone. Though the district does not lie in flood and drought-prone zones, it witnesses flood and drought situations frequently. The average rainfall in this district is 1231mm. In fact, the district is prone to multiple hazards.

Considering the situation in the field, DHAN’s interventions were designed to facilitate community-led conservation, as the communities are the first to respond to any disaster. DHAN partnered with ITC, through its corporate social responsibility (CSR) with emphasis of community actions for local development. The project “Water and Livelihoods Security: Reviving Traditional Ahar and Pyne System Irrigation in Munger Districts of South Bihar” was launched with a mission of addressing poverty through water and agriculture interventions in poorly developed areas of Munger district.

What is Ahar and Pyne?

Ahar and Pyne is a 5000-year-old irrigation system in Bihar. The word Ahar–Pyne came from Magadhi language of Bihar. It was the traditional irrigation system well-managed by the Magadh Kingdom. Ahars are reservoirs with an embankment on three sides while Pynes are diversion channels laid from the river or the catchment area for impounding water in the Ahars and channels. Through this system, one Pyne can irrigate up to 400 acres. It helps controls flood and drought and acts as a protecting mechanism for the villages.

Ahar and Pyne assist in controlling floods by distributing surplus water into its system. Drought is also controlled as it makes water available in the reservoir for a year. Munger district receives 976mm of rainfall (almost 80% of the total average rainfall of 1231mm) between June and September. The balance 20% gets distributed in the remaining eight months. Hence, most of the agricultural activities depend on the rainwater harvesting systems.

Although Ahar–Pyne has been extremely effective in this district as a traditional system, most of the Ahar and Pyne systems were degraded due to the lack of community management. The community negligence in up keeping the system has resulted in manmade droughts and floods. Villages are severely affected by unsafe drinking water, flood and drought.

DHAN has worked on similar systems in Gaya, this experience made us apprehend the need to revive the traditional Ahar and Pyne system with community participation. DHAN undertook the renovation initiatives in Tarapur, H. Kharagpur and Asarganj blocks of Munger district. Through the renovation of the reservoir (Ahar) and channel (Pyne), both rain and river water was harvested, thereby ensuring water security. Availability of water, in turn, ensured food security and recharge of groundwater in the South Bihar region. The project provided a cost-effective method of irrigation for crops. By exploring new ideas and technologies, accessibility to water is made certain. Besides renovation works, training programmes on agriculture has facilitated an increase in productivity, thus addressing the food security-related issues.

Institution building

DHAN believes in organising communities first and building them as an institution. The community involvement brings in transparency and sustainability into the process. The farmers and agricultural labourers in a watershed are organised as Village Level Association (VLA), i.e. Vayalagam. The VLA is the core feature in identifying the Ahar and Pyne for renovation. The entire stake is with the VLA to own, manage and govern the institution. 31 Vayalagams were promoted during 2016-17.

In the VLA, the general body consists of all the members of Ahar; and Pyne, the representative body or the executive committee consists of three members. They act as the office bearers in the capacity of president, secretary and treasurer. The executive committee plays the role of decision-making guided by the general body and is responsible for implementation of all types of structures in its beneficiary area.

The members of the VLA have also organised themselves into multiple Agriculture Finance Groups (AFGs) comprising 12-20 members. The AFGs does financial intermediation by pooling its member’s resources. The members of the AFG are the direct beneficiary of financial intermediation. The AFG provides financial support to the VLA for ensuring its sustainability.

Sustainable assess to finance: Agriculture Finance Group

While the village level association works on water and agricultural development, the AFG facilitates access to finance. It is notable that most of the farmers in rural Bihar do not have access to banking services. The groups promoted in Munger district serve as a microbank. Members of the group save money depending upon their capacity and the amount of savings is decided considering the capacity of the members. The group uses the savings amount to lend to the members of the group. All the groups are expected to open a separate bank account for their groups. These AFGs are the link in a VLA. Each month, the members of the AFG have a group meeting compulsorily. This provides space for them to interact with VLA even after the completion of work.

Khaira VLA experience – an Illustration

Khaira village is predominantly an agriculture-based village, located 56 km away from Munger district. It lies 10 km away from Tarapur, the block headquarters. Khaira village lies in Khaira panchayat. The total number of households in this village is 472. The total population of the village is 2,248 which includes 1,140 men and 1,108 women. The total SC population in this village is 533, of which 262 are men and 271 are women. The total number of families living in this village is 285. About 23% of the population belongs to scheduled caste. There is one household belonging to ST community with a population of three members. The village has poor road facilities, therefore the public transportation facilities also not adequate. Private vehicles and autorickshaws are the main sources of transportation. Farmers are hardworking, but less mainstream support is not helping them to come out of poverty. Under this project, DHAN Foundation supported by ITC MSK has facilitated the promotion of “Adarsh Gram Ahar Pyne Samiti” in Khaira village. The association has 71 member households, who have a direct relationship with the water body. After the renovation of this pond, farmers were able to irrigate 295 acres of land and the VLA use the excess water for fish rearing. This has helped the members of the VLA increase income from this structure.

In this village, 4.97 acres of government land is allotted for the pond. The local MLA had renovated 1.75 acres of the pond partly 15 years back. For the last 40 years, no stakeholders had given focus to keep the full structure alive. Rest of the pond remained untouched for years. Gradually, the farmers owning lands on the banks started grabbing the land. DHAN Foundation promoted one VLA in this village in January 2017. The members were motivated to recover the encroached land. Initially, the farmers were hesitant because there were chances of disputes arising in their village among them.

The professionals aided by DHAN have undertaken the levelling and prepared the estimates. They informed the VLA to act on time before the start of the monsoon to get the work done. This time, the members of the VLA gained confidence and unanimously took the decision to evict the encroached land.)

The VLA decided to recreate two new ponds on the evicted land. The estimates for both the ponds Chinta 1 and Chinta 2 were already prepared even before the eviction of the land. The estimates were approved by DHAN program office; the total estimate was for Rs. 6.35 lakhs; out of which ITC MSK’s support was for Rs.5.08 lakhs (80%) and the community contribution was Rs.1.27 lakhs (20%). The VLA collected Rs. 63,000 excess over and above the community contribution to complete the work.

The reclamation of the new Ahar was planned for 1.5 acres of land. The VLA proposed to use 1.72 acres of the remaining land to grow horticultural crops. This was proposed to ensure the sustainability of the VLA and generate funds for future maintenance of the structure. They applied silt on this barren land to grow plants on the land and on the bunds of the structures. They also have plans to rear fish in the ponds and generate income under the supervision of the Vayalagam. The VLA has planned to engage a labourer for 365 man-days to look after the structures and plants on the bund.

They had similar plans to promote small businesses through the horticultural crops to provide employment to the landless VLA members and generate profit from it. The executed works have increased the additional water storage capacity of the pond to 7,073 Cu.M. Now, the renovated pond will provide sufficient water to agricultural land of the beneficiaries. With this total storage of the Chinta Ahar 1 and 2 the Khaira village could ensure water throughout the year.

The Chinta Ahar 2 work was proposed for 3,600 Cu.M of excavation works. The timeline for initiating the works was close to the monsoon. Fearing that the works could not be completed fully and anticipating the need to mobilise additional contribution, DHAN team proposed to abandon the work initiation in the financial year. However, the VLA is keen to mobilise the funds and start the work. They mobilised balance funds for fulfilling their community contribution to complete the work before the onset of the monsoon

Similar to Khaira, in Munger district, DHAN promoted 37 AFGs and 28 VLA’s totally in 2016–17. A total of 636 members of the AFG mobilised total savings of Rs. 318,400/- and have a loan outstanding of Rs. 2,70,640/-. So far, 20 Ahars and 17 Pynes were renovated. Two check dams along with inlet and outlet were constructed. The total outlay for the check dams was Rs.96.71 lakhs including donor agency contribution of Rs. 75.82 lakhs and community contribution of Rs. 20.07 lakhs. Through renovation, 95,601 Cu.M of soil was excavated. The silt was applied in the farmlands, 392 farmers were benefitted through the silt application.

Other than renovation work, the farmers were also facilitated to attend training programmes on improved farm practices and technologies. Totally, 2,630 kg of paddy and wheat seeds were distributed to 81 farmers in collaboration with Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) Munger for agricultural demonstration.

Of this, 31 farmers attempted SRI paddy cultivation through paddy transplanter; 130 kg of the paddy seed was sown in 7.28 ha. Further, 53 farmers have undertaken agricultural demonstration initiative; 2,500 kg of wheat was cultivated using zero tillage machines in 20.23 ha. In four ahars, the VLA has started fish rearing as there was abundant water because of the renovation work.

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