Technology empowers women farmers in Andhra Pradesh

Agricultural technology empowers farm women in Andhra Pradesh

A groundbreaking innovation in agriculture has helped reduce the drudgery of farm women in Andhra Pradesh, one of the top maize producing states in the country. In Srikakulam, a coastal district in northern Andhra Pradesh, women labourers had to dig holes with a stick called 'borugu' and sow seeds with their backs bent all the time, which led to severe bodyache for which women had to regularly take medicines or apply balm to try to ease the pain.

However, a simple and ground-breaking innovation called the 'double wheel marker' has helped women by making sowing less labour-intensive and time-consuming. Combined with this, the novel agricultural technique of 'zero tillage' has increased the maize yield from the fields of Andhra Pradesh. 

The easy-to-use device is made of iron rods welded together and affixed with two wheels and mechanical arms that burrow equal-sized holes in the soil for sowing seeds. Women can take turns and one woman can push the burrowing farm device and the other can plant seeds, which allows the sowers to straighten their backs and finish the task by spending less time (Village Square). 

Maharashtra farmers tackle water scarcity and migration by pooling resources to grow a bumper harvest of pearl millet 

A group of 30 farmers, (Samata farmer's group) from the village of Madgyal, in the drought-prone Jath taluka of Maharashtra, have secured a bumper harvest of bajra (pearl millet), last season. The village of Madgyal falls under the rain shadow region with an annual rainfall of 522 m and water scarcity presents a number of challenges for agriculture in the region.

The village also lacks access to the Mhaisal Lift Irrigation Scheme, run by the state government, that ensures equitable distribution of water. The water canal is at least a kilometre from the village and wells and borewells of the village receive only some water. Water scarcity leads to high migration in the village. 

The group pooled 25 acres to grow bajra together, which helped the farmers to cut costs and tackle the twin challenge of water scarcity and farmers’ migration to the sugar belts of the state. The harvest was three times more than the national average per hectare and the farmers have bigger goals for the sowing that begins in June 2023.

The agricultural officers provided farmers with high-yielding hybrid seeds, basal fertiliser, and urea, like nitrogen fertiliser for top dressing and the farmers exploited the true genetic potential of the seeds and adopted integrated technology to gain such a good harvest.

This year, Samata Farmers Group is looking forward to doubling its acreage as the produce was sold at a premium price of Rs 3,000 per quintal to a Hyderabad-based company (Mongabay, India).

Kashmir celebrates Panzath Nag, a unique annual spring cleaning festival in May

People from Kashmir wait eagerly every year to celebrate the annual Panzath Nag spring cleaning festival. This year too, people waded into the Panzath Nag spring and together cleaned the freshwater spring. 

Panzath Nag is located in South Kashmir’s Kulgam district and its annual festival of spring cleaning and fishing is a part of the tradition of Kashmir. Every year, villagers gather and pick a day in the third or fourth week of May and collectively clean Panzath Nag, a spring spread across a 500 metres area, and also catch fish. This unique annual spring festival is an age-old ritual for many villagers in the districts of Kulgam, Pulwama and Shopian in Kashmir. 

The name Panzath Nag is derived from the word ‘Paanch Haath’, meaning ‘five hundred’ in Kashmiri. It is believed the 500 springs lie in a radius of 1.5 kilometres from Panzath village. The spring finds mention in the ancient texts of Kashmir that were written in the 12th century and is believed to be the source of many smaller springs. Panzath Nag irrigates and provides drinking water to over 25 villages of Qazigund including Vessu, Nussu, Bonigam, Babapora, Newa, Wanpora and Panzath.

The collective fishing and cleaning activity not only helps to clean the springs and restore their flows, but also helps to clear the silt that can help water flow to the lower channels to irrigate the crops (Gaon Connection).

Odisha villagers claim their rights to the forests 

The villages of Kodalpalli and Sinduria in Odisha used the forests around them for millet cultivation. But they lacked legal rights over the forest, and the soil conservation department under the forest department soon took over the patch to cultivate cashews. By the 1990s, the plantations were taken up by the Odisha State Cashew Development Corporation Ltd. who leased out the land to private parties.

The people of Kodalapalli and Sinduria not only lost their right to cultivate their own food, but were also excluded from the cashew plantations and sale. The village men gradually began to migrate out for work in the absence of livelihood opportunities. 

After the enactment of the Forest Rights legislation, both the villages applied for Community Forest Rights (CFR) titles and received the titles over 282.67 hectares of forest land in 2021. This helped the villagers to collect, store, process, transport and sell minor forest produce (MFPs) in the market.

Both villages now have a cashew committee to oversee the collection and sale of the produce each year. The villagers have mandated one person from every household to participate in the cashew collection process. It is mostly women who participate. All the activities from collection to sale are carried out by each household and the profits are divided equally amongst the households.

After collection, the cashews are dried, packaged and sold. The community women have now also started protecting their forest through Thengapalli, an activity in which they patrol the forest on a rotational basis (Mongabay, India). 

Large lakes in India are shrinking, finds a recent study

More than 30 large lakes in India are showing a drying trend from 1992 to 2020, reveals a new study published in the journal Science. Of them,16 are the major lakes of southern India and include those such as  Mettur, Krishnarajasagar, Nagarjuna Sagar and Idamalayar. Recent droughts may have contributed to reservoir storage declines in southern India.

The study used satellite observations from 1992-2020 and covered 2,000 of the world’s biggest lakes and reservoirs that contribute to 95 percent of the total lake water storage on Earth. It revealed that that 53 percent of the world’s largest lakes have been losing water and 24 percent have seen an increase. The decline is more in the reservoir water storage in both arid and humid regions.

In 100 of the large lakes studied, climate change and human water consumption have been found to be the main causes of water loss and a decline in lake volume. Managing lakes in an integrated manner is urgently needed to save the lakes in the future, warns the study (DownTo Earth).

This is a roundup of important news updates from May 16 - May 31, 2023. Also read our policy updates this fortnight here.