Between my first visit in 2015 and the next visit to the farm i had done a lot of study over the youtube on farming. It also struck me that there is a huge opportunity to set things right in the farm. A walk around the farm with a little more wisdom than the previous visit opened my eyes on the blunders we were committing in the farm. Our farmers used to complain how the rains have reduced over the last decade and how harsh and unpredictable the nature has turned into.
The days were so harsh and hot in the farm, we had very less tree cover. Farmers are never eager to have trees in the farm since the shade is not beneficial to the crops. They would be looking for reason to chop the the trees. There were 2 or 3 locations in our farm where rain water would exit the farm. I felt there is something wrong here. I downloaded the rainfall data for Gadag district for the past 30 year. What i found is, there are frequent droughts but the annual rainfall is in the range of 500mm to 800mm with the mean being 660mm. Anything below 400mm would generally translated into drough and anything above 800mm would generally mean there were heavy rainfall days and that would result into flash floods.
So we neither have the capacity to hold the excess water not able to withstand slight drop in annual rainfall.
So my next thought process was why should not we plug all the exit points from the farm and create a large farm pond and store the rainwater. Even a sub standard rainfall should not matter since most of the farm on the higher elevation were anyways not interested in storing the rainwater. I always had the privilege utilizing the run off water by storing it in the farm pond.
There were a lot of puzzles i had to solve even before i start the work on the farm pond. I never knew the quantum of runoff water from the rain water canal next to our land. That canal would carry the run off water from all the above lands (around 50 acres). I had never visited the farm during rainy days to gauge what to expect from the runoff water. The only way to gauge anything was from the soil inspection from the canal to understand the erosion pattern and probable volume of runoff. Another way to understand was through the eyes of my farmers. The challenge here was, they had different version when i triggered my questions from different angles. It was a very difficult phase where i had to make my decision based on the stories i heard from my farmers. I finally relied on the soil erosion pattern on the canal.
There were two challenges i was supposed to address. One, what if the quantum of runoff water is impossible to handle by my pond since i am addressing the water from not just from my land but also from the lands on the higher elevation. Secondly, will my farm pond really be able to harvest water since i will have to run a new 1600ft canal all along my farm.
There was a lot of resistance among the farmers and also from my father. They were of the opinion that i am waste land for the farm pond and i could also probably ruin the farm if am unable to handle the runoff water.
I convinced myself by considering few things. The chance of runoff water ruining the farm is out of question since anyways the runoff water is already ruining the farm with my observation on the soil erosion patter and exit paths from the farm is taking away the top soil. What can be more disastrous than this. Secondly, after all we are earning just 30K per year as farm income, so what is at stake is very insignificant. Thirdly, i could compensate my farmers for their losses if at all the farm is flooded with runoff water.
Finally, if i fail in my attempt, doors for me are closed forever for my experiments in the farm. In case i succeed i will get another life line for my next experiment. I had nothing much to lose apart from respect and a lakh rupees to dig the farm pond.
Farm ponds were not a norm during 2015-16. I have the first person to undertake this crazy task in my villages and also in the entire radius of 10-15 kms. There was a subsidy of upto Rs50k to dig a farm pond of 70ft x 70ft x 10ft. It can hold upto 15lakh litres of water. I finally decided to dig a farm pond double the size, 100ft x 100ft x 10ft. I estimated a cost of atleast 1 lakh rupees.
The Rain water runoff canal between our land and our neighbor's land.
The days were so harsh and hot in the farm, we had very less tree cover. Farmers are never eager to have trees in the farm since the shade is not beneficial to the crops. They would be looking for reason to chop the the trees. There were 2 or 3 locations in our farm where rain water would exit the farm. I felt there is something wrong here. I downloaded the rainfall data for Gadag district for the past 30 year. What i found is, there are frequent droughts but the annual rainfall is in the range of 500mm to 800mm with the mean being 660mm. Anything below 400mm would generally translated into drough and anything above 800mm would generally mean there were heavy rainfall days and that would result into flash floods.
So we neither have the capacity to hold the excess water not able to withstand slight drop in annual rainfall.
So my next thought process was why should not we plug all the exit points from the farm and create a large farm pond and store the rainwater. Even a sub standard rainfall should not matter since most of the farm on the higher elevation were anyways not interested in storing the rainwater. I always had the privilege utilizing the run off water by storing it in the farm pond.
There were a lot of puzzles i had to solve even before i start the work on the farm pond. I never knew the quantum of runoff water from the rain water canal next to our land. That canal would carry the run off water from all the above lands (around 50 acres). I had never visited the farm during rainy days to gauge what to expect from the runoff water. The only way to gauge anything was from the soil inspection from the canal to understand the erosion pattern and probable volume of runoff. Another way to understand was through the eyes of my farmers. The challenge here was, they had different version when i triggered my questions from different angles. It was a very difficult phase where i had to make my decision based on the stories i heard from my farmers. I finally relied on the soil erosion pattern on the canal.
There were two challenges i was supposed to address. One, what if the quantum of runoff water is impossible to handle by my pond since i am addressing the water from not just from my land but also from the lands on the higher elevation. Secondly, will my farm pond really be able to harvest water since i will have to run a new 1600ft canal all along my farm.
There was a lot of resistance among the farmers and also from my father. They were of the opinion that i am waste land for the farm pond and i could also probably ruin the farm if am unable to handle the runoff water.
I convinced myself by considering few things. The chance of runoff water ruining the farm is out of question since anyways the runoff water is already ruining the farm with my observation on the soil erosion patter and exit paths from the farm is taking away the top soil. What can be more disastrous than this. Secondly, after all we are earning just 30K per year as farm income, so what is at stake is very insignificant. Thirdly, i could compensate my farmers for their losses if at all the farm is flooded with runoff water.
Finally, if i fail in my attempt, doors for me are closed forever for my experiments in the farm. In case i succeed i will get another life line for my next experiment. I had nothing much to lose apart from respect and a lakh rupees to dig the farm pond.
Farm ponds were not a norm during 2015-16. I have the first person to undertake this crazy task in my villages and also in the entire radius of 10-15 kms. There was a subsidy of upto Rs50k to dig a farm pond of 70ft x 70ft x 10ft. It can hold upto 15lakh litres of water. I finally decided to dig a farm pond double the size, 100ft x 100ft x 10ft. I estimated a cost of atleast 1 lakh rupees.
The Rain water runoff canal between our land and our neighbor's land.
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