“It has been 10 years that we (ayacut farmers of Katchagudi tank) got a good yield. Now we are celebrating, the entire village is celebrating! Because all the farmers harvested good yield,” says Mr.Chinnaiah, one of the members in Katchagudi Kanmoi Vayalagam jubilating the good harvest that they got in this year (2009), after rehabilitation of the Katchagudi tank.
Katchagudi tank in K.Kovilpatti village of Singampunari is the major source of irrigation for the 14 farmers under its ayacut area of 18 acres. All of them are small and marginal farmers dependent on agriculture as their main source of livelihood.
But severe leakage and damage in the two sluices meant that the tank becomes empty within a week. Around 20000 cu.m of the water gets wasted during the cropping season. Consequently the yield of the crop gets affected due to the water deficiency. Out of the 18 acres of total cultivated area, harvest was done only in 8-10 acres and the remaining area faced the crop failure.
This was until 2009, when DHAN Foundation initiated its Vayalagam programme in the village under the ITC funded Mission Sunerakal project. DHAN promoted Katchagudi Kanmoi Vayalagam in 25.07.2009. The Vayalagam association with the support from DHAN reconstructed the sluice at the cost of Rs.40000, with 25% of contribution (i.e. Rs.10000) coming from the people.
After reconstruction of sluice, the tank received water from the monsoon in November 2009 and tank filled up. And this time there was no leakage. The farmers got 3 times more amount of the water than that was previously available. In the last year, the tank irrigated all the 18 acres of the ayacut area. In fact, the water was surplus irrigating an additional 10 acres of land besides the ayacut area.
“This has happened nearly after 15 years,” Chinnaiah says. “For this, we are thankful to ITC and DHAN Foundation,” he further added.
It is to be noted that the farmers harvested a successful paddy crop with an average yield of 2200kg as against the previous year’s yield of 1800 kg per acres.
