A Village's Watershed Moment

Till, a year later, the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) chose Kothapally for an experiment in a community watershed scheme. The villagers were initially wary as they thought tanks would lead to flooding. So, the institute built an earthen check dam on common land at a cost of Rs 35,000. The benefits started accruing in the first season itself. Encouraged, a group of six farmers decided to try icrisat’s advice. In six months, says A. Narayan Reddy, one of the six farmers, "the wells were gushing with water and our yields were much higher". Others were willing to give water conservation and soil management a shot. Within years, groundwater level rose 27 per cent, yields went up, farmers could grow post-rabi and post-kharif crops like vegetables and flowers, and earnings quadrupled. T. Narasimhulu offers us the evidence: the villagers now own 40 autos, six tractors and five lorries to transport their produce.