How a village didn’t let drought kill its crops

MADURAI: About a decade ago, Odapatti village in Tamil Nadu’s Theni region turned a complete blind spot — read rain-Shadow — for the monsoon, putting farmers in a quandary.Odapatti is located against the backdrop of the lush green Western Ghats barely an hour away from Kerala that has never missed its date with the rains. Even the locals were flummoxed when Odapatti, though always partially rain-shadow region, went dry without a drop of rain.Five successive years of drought prompted Odapatti farmers to look at an alternative to rain-fed irrigation, their dependence on rain having steadily increased as groundwater depleted. 71517809“Some 40 years ago, our fields were irrigated by open wells, barely 40 feet deep. As water levels fell, people dug deeper. When there was no water even at 150 feet depth, we shifted to borewells. These too went dry,” said M P Kanagaraj, a farmer in Odapatti.The struggling villagers then hit upon the idea of drawing water from the Mullaperiyar river 15km from the village. The Mullaperiyar flows from Kerala into Tamil Nadu. large71539132“Initially, it was considered as unrealistic as bringing artificial rain into our village,” said Kanagaraj, adding that since there was no better idea, villagers got down to making it a reality. The land was fertile, the farmers skilled.So, in 2014, a group of farmers bought a small portion of land on the river bank, sunk a borewell, laid pipelines for about 15 km cutting across many people’s farm lands and finally brought water to the village, the farmer said.In the last five years, word spread and more clusters of farmers were formed, with a minimum of 10 and maximum of 30 in each group, to transport water from the river bank. “There are 20 such farmer clusters in Odapatti now, bringing water from the river banks of Mullaperiyar near Uthamapalayam and irrigating close to 3,000 acres,” said U P K K Rajan, who cultivates on 22 acres. Water is supplied in rotation such that every farmer gets water at least once a week. Each cluster covers about 100 acres. “We grow vegetables, grapes, pomegranates and coconut,” said Rajan. The village is up to date on micro-irrigation practices like drip and sprinkler, so a day’s supply from the common sump sustains one week’s irrigation. Farmers gave up plantain cultivation, which requires lots of water, said Rajan. large71539176Success was hard-won. “We spent about Rs 1 crore per cluster to buy land on the bank, laying pipelines, installing water pumping system and constructing giant sumps for water storage. Much of the system is automated. The submersible motors installed in the borewells start automatically if there is water and power. We get information on our mobiles if the motor is running. Despite the motor running, if we do not get water, it indicates a pipe burst and we attend to that. One thing we are sure of is good yield,” said P Venkatesan, a young farmer. He has attended many farmer training classes and advises farmers on best practices. Odapatti farmers get up to 10 tonnes of grapes per acre. They supply vegetables to all nearby major markets daily.The spin-off of Odapatti’s success stories is that youngsters are showing interest in farming, pre-empting their eventual migration to urban centres. The village has grown in stature and over the decades has become a special grade town panchayat. 71517780Odapatti farmers believe they deserve a better deal. It is, they say, government’s responsibility to provide farmers infrastructure. “It is sad if farmers must invest on common infrastructure, because only the affluent can afford to spend,” said Rajan. Their innovation, the farmers said, had also become a blind spot for governments.Pics: K Antony Xavier