Help villagers get access to a harvesting pond by Manuvikasa

We have developed 52 ponds and helped 220 farmers and provided irrigation facilities to 65 acres of land. We have made awareness programmes in the villages regarding the importance of water and rainwater harvesting. As a result, farmers are ready to give their piece of land for developing farm ponds. After pond construction, farmers are using pond water for irrigation, domestic purpose and animal husbandry. Initially, farmers are growing one crop in a year and now they can grow more than one crop. Sudden stop of rainfall and shortage of water farmers are facing lots of problem in watering their crops but farm ponds give them protective irrigation. Now greenery surrounding the farm ponds is increased and also moisture in the soil increased. These ponds are helped them to reduce the erosion of soil and also we noticed the diversification in the crops. several farmers from the surrounding areas approaching us to develop farm ponds in their area. This activity demonstrated the replication effect and sustainability. We have conducted this activity in the----- villages of Siddapur taluk.

We have a good rapport with the community through women empowerment and livelihood programme. We have not faced many problems in community mobilization and convincing farmers to develop the ponds. We faced some problems during COVID time. In both lockdown periods, our staff members and volunteers are not able to move from one place to other. Also facing problem with transporting machinery but we have got permission from the authorities to conduct the activity and achieved the target. This year we have faced uncertain rainfall and it has slow down our activity. We have planned to develop 100 farm ponds and help 450 farmers and 500 acres of land.

Stories from the ground: Shivu Rama Gouda is a 72-year-old poor farmer residing at Kulle Village in Siddapur Taluk, Uttara Kannada District. Shivu Rama Gouda is having only one acre of agricultural land in which he grew paddy, areca nut and banana. Earlier, due to water scarcity, he grew the only paddy. After the rainy season, slowly water in the well nearby them was decreasing. In the summer they have to borrow water from others for their daily needs. When MANUVIKASA entered Kulle village, We came to know about the water scarcity problem in the village. All areca nut trees were becoming red due to water shortage. We made a survey and selected needy farmers who are really poor and were not able to develop any farm ponds at their own cost. Mr Shivu Gouda is one of them. With the help of nearby farmers, we have selected the place so that after developing the farm pond at least 4-5 farmers who are nearby, get benefit from this pond. After getting permission from the head office, field staff shifted the excavating machine to the land and developed one farm pond free of cost. Springwater came out of the pond. Everybody is happy especially Mr Shivu Gouda. Now this pond is filled with water. His areca nut trees are becoming green once again. All nearby wells were also recharged. Last summer they don't have faced any water shortage problem. So many birds and insects came to drink the pond water with which pollination of crops is good and farmers get good crop yield as a result. Mr Shivu Gouda and the farmers nearby are thanking our organization for bringing happiness and prosperity to their life.

Water is a source of life. We can’t imagine the life of any organism in the world without water. Nowadays community is facing water scarcity and we all experienced the ill effect of the water scarcity. Water conservation is an urgent need of the hour.  We build 4 tanks per village in 2 weeks in places selected by farmers with  assistance of local water experts. Rejuvenation takes a month as we dry the soil.  We use JCB (brand name) drilling machines for tank work and use labors for finishing and other works. We select beneficiaries with poverty for this donation option.  First we conduct meeting with the beneficiaries and select the proper site for rejuvenation or construction of the work. Once we use JCB for one day, our staff or volunteers will take care of finishing work of the tank through local
labor. Before construction, two  to three labors will clean the site with removing weeds and shrubs. Then the water supply feeding channels – one for input and another for output are cleared. Both the activities take 5 days. One whole day is spent in digging with JCB. After this the bunds are strengthened
using rub stones which are locally available. This and the final finishing work takes  another week. The effort, time and cost  needed for rejuvenation and construction are same. In rejuvenation, we remove the silt that is clogging the tank. Local people will be take confidence to identify the site which should benefit more number of
beneficiaries after construction of tank. This selection of site, construction and finishing work completion required at least 15 days. The structure remains for more than 10 years and needs no maintenance.

Tanks developed to ease the difficulties of villagers

There were tanks developed in Hulimane, Hulibarkanjaddi, Bugadisara, Ummachagi and Belladda villages. In the beginning we were not able to develop ponds due to heavy rain. But now the program is running very well. The harvesting ponds are helping the villagers immensely.

Fieldsite images of harvesting ponds