‘Water budgeting to gauge profitability of crops need of the hour’

Adopting integrated farming system by growing millets and pulses, and conserving rainwater was the key to mitigating drought in the Rayalaseema region, said experts.

Observing the United Nations’-declared World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, the Accion Fraterna (AF) Ecology Centre organised an interactive session among experts, stakeholders and farmers here on Monday, to spread awareness on the need for undertaking sustainable practices in the region to stop desertification.

One of the major lacunae in working towards sustainable agriculture, said Ground Water and Water Audit Department Deputy Director K. Thippeswamy, was the lack of water budgeting each year, with the village as the unit to make agriculture sustainable and profitable for farmers. Each year, farmers grew only groundnut in the region in the absence of budgeting on the types of crops that could be grown and their alternatives.

Warning of a water emergency in the region, he said, 10 tmcft of water was being drawn each time the groundwater level went down by a metre. In Anantapur, it had gone down from 11 metres 10 years ago to 27 metres in 2019, which meant that 90 tmcft of dead-storage of groundwater, which needed to be replenished, was used.

AF Ecology Centre’s Director Y.V. Malla Reddy said if the Navadhanya Cropping System was reintroduced, farmers could benefit enormously.

Multiple benefits

Intercropping, which involved sowing different crops together but harvesting them at different times, provided steady revenue to farmers. Moreover, land under the foliage remained covered and not exposed to sun, thus retaining moisture level. Leaves on the ground helped keep soil fertile, said Mr. Reddy.

Panyam Subrahmanyam, Retired Irrigation Superintending Engineer at the Tungabhadra Dam, said the priority of the government should be to fill at least once all the 1,245 tanks and 2,000 kuntas (smaller water bodies) to deal with desertification. He said the 27 tmcft, channelled by the previous government to Anantapur through the Handri Neeva Sujala Sravathi, was enough to stop desertification, but no water audit was undertaken and not all tanks were filled.