Polythene-lined ponds to rescue farmers from unseasonal rains

BENGALURU: To fend off an agrarian crisis similar to the one sweeping across parts of north India and prevent farmer suicides, Karnataka has begun to implement a scheme to monsoon-proof the farmer that could turn out to be a national solution.

About 35,000 farmers across the state's 175 taluks are implementing the pilot programme by setting up polythene-lined water storage ponds in their fields to prevent water seep age and store run-off rainwater. Another 1,750 have opted for more highend poly houses poly roofs over a section of their farms to grow exotic vegetables under shade, which will ensure that they won't fall into debt under any circumstances, be it excess or deficit rain.

All of them have individual or jointly-owned diesel pumps that will provide micro irrigation (drip irrigation) from the poly ponds for their fields. Chief minister Siddaramaiah has set aside `. 1,000 crore over two Budgets for the programme, dubbed Krishi Bhagya (farm fortune). It's being piloted for the current kharif season that began in April and will go on until September.

“The intent is to ensure that the dryland farmer has at least some water to ensure that all their crop is not ruined, either through excess rain or due to drought,“ Karnataka's minister of state for agriculture, Krishna Byre Gowda, a close associate of party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, told ET.

The scheme, formulated over three months of consultations with agriculture experts including MS Swaminathan and the Hyderabad-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, puts together elements from similar programmes across the country and the world, including watershed programmes from Israel. The details were presented by Gowda to Union rural development minister Birender Singh and union agriculture secretary S Ayyappan in March.

Karnataka's former additional chief secretary and development commissioner GV Krishna Rau, who headed the expert committee that drew up the scheme, told ET: “We need to look at agriculture as a business investment with returns, rather than as charity.“

Rau is currently advisor to Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

Karnataka has about 48 lakh land holdings that are solely dependent on rain. Over the last six years, four have been drought years.

Gowda explained the poly pond would ensure that some of the runoff from the average 700 mm rain per hectare would be retained and could be used at crucial times to save crops, if the rain fails.