Bendalapadu’s Successful Watershed Project

Bendalapadu is small villages tucked away in the dry land area of Khammam Dist. Around 200 households make this village and most of the people own vast stretches of land but are forced to work as agricultural laborers due to the dry climate and persisting drought conditions in the area. Poverty became their way of life and their struggle seemed endless, until OUTREACH took up NABARD watershed development programme there. Things changed for the better there after. There are many a success stories. The story of Yetti Buchi Ramulu is one such case.

Yetti Buchi Ramulu – The Best Example

Yetti Chukkamma owned 10 acres of dry land but led a life of a labourer for most part of the year. Her Husband, Buchi Ramulu toiled from morning to night on 4 acres of their land, in the hope of cultivating some food crops at least to meet the needs of the family of seven. “Despite our hard work, we were able to get food only for 2 months in a year. Thus, I too worked as a labourer for meeting the needs of the family”, recalled Chukkamma.

Yetti Buchi Ramulu adds, “This is a rain-fed area. Rains fail very often. We hardly got Rs.1,500/- per acre (i.e., a total of Rs.6,000) per year to feed our entire family. Each time, we were sinking in debts. We used to pledge my wife’s jewellery every year. There was one major reason of why the four acres did not yield enough for the family. It was on a steep slope and hence when it rained heavily, the precious top soil used to get washed away. Thus, the quality of the land got deteriorated resulting in poor yields.

During one such bad year, Yetti Buchi Ramulu went to exposure visit conducted by OUTREACH with the support of NABARD Funds and Wassan took all the VWDC committee members to Warangal Meripeda Bangia, a neighboring watershed area and was surprised to see the farmers reaping very good crop yeilds after implementing the watershed development activities. He learnt about the benefits of soil and water conservation. He coaxed OUTREACH to carry out similar activities in his village too.

 

Towards the end of 2009, Yetti Buchi Ramulu managed to construct NFB work on the four acres of his land, with his contribution and support of the project funds. The bunds checked soil erosion and helped retain moisture. Thus improving the soil conditions. The following year, a new vegetable sandy was established near his village. This served as a good opportunity for him to improve his income. He requested a farmer who owned a bore-well, to supply water to his land at the rate of Rs.15/- per hour and grew Cucumber and Tornata besides Brinjal on 4 acres. He earned a profit of Rs.3,000/- per acre. He realized that this was possible only because of his decision to construct a bund. Though the income was still insufficient for the whole year, it was much better, as it met the needs of the family for nearly six months.

This encouraged the couple and they dug a farm pond in FIP-1 in the year 2010, with the support of NABARD funds. They also contributed their shramadhan work through kind and VWDC constructed to build about 5 gully checks. On an average, Yetti Buchiramulu now got an additional income of Rs.6,000/- per year, because of the enhanced crop yield on account of watershed development efforts and growing vegetables.

Yetti Buchi Ramulu has been an active member of the Watershed Committee and earns a minimum of Rs.2,500/- p.m. doing work connected with it. He is known for his skills in constructing gully checks and is on demand in the neighbouring villages. He is full of enthusiasm and A very touching incident proved the real success of the watershed programme. The yetti Buchi Ramulu guided the team through their farmland and arrived at the farm pond. They were surprised to see the quantity of water collected in them and they happily got into the pond and splashed around. The couple Chukkamma and Ramulu had not visited the pond for two days and they were really surprised to see the increase in the level of water in just two days. This happiness was a manifestation to the benefit of water harvesting structures on the farm.

A check dam was constructed at village Bendalapadu, Gram Panchayat Gurraigudem under NABARD WDF Project in Khammam Dist. This check dam was constructed at perennial water source of Peddha Vagu in says, “My land was full of stones and now it is a treat to watch mud and fertile silt on it. I will put in further efforts and level the slope also”.the down stream side of the village Bendalapadu. Since the water of this source was not used for any purpose but after inception of this programme a meeting was fixed with the local people along with transact walk by WASSAN and NABARD PMU team. This site was identified and given approval for construction check dam. The total expenditure for construction of this dam was Rs. 2,01786/-. The water of this check dam is being used by 6 families of village Bendalapdu for agriculture purpose. Approximately 15 acres of land is being irrigated by this source. A user group of all six families has been constituted. Due to the check dam beneficiaries of village Bendalapadu got bumper production of cotton and chilly crops etc.