Anantapur: Collector hails AF Ecology Centre for providing protective irrigation

Anantapur-Puttaparthi: RDT Action Fraterna Ecology Centre on Wednesday showcased an effective method, Mobile Protective Irrigation, of saving standing crops in the district in the face of an impending drought, by saving groundnut, red gram, castor, millets and other crops.

District Collector M Gauthami appreciated the efforts of the AF Ecology Centre for providing protective irrigation in 5,000 acres of 8 revenue mandals in the district. She described it as an innovative way of saving crops in rainfed drylands when the region had not received rain for the past 40 days.

Gauthami said she would send a report to the state government on this effective method of saving crops.

AF Ecology Centre Director YV Malla Reddy said that 1,500 farmers associated with the NGO had been successful in protecting the standing crops by using tankers, sprinklers, drip irrigation methods and flood irrigation using a pipe connected to a tanker/borewell outlet through mutual cooperation to reduce the cost.

The Collector along with Joint Director of Agriculture Umamaheswaramma, District Horticulture Officer B Raghunath Reddy, APMIP Project Director Md Feroze Khan visited three different plots of standing crops at Jallipalli village in Kudair mandal of Anantapur district, where red gram, castor and Foxtail Millet (Korra), sown two months ago were being given protective irrigation with the help of drip pipes attached to a 5,000-liter water tanker.

In the first plot, the state government officials interacted with a farmer Manamma, who had sown red gram and it was showing signs of wilting, hence began providing protective irrigation using two tankers every day for three days to protect the red-gram crop in 4 acres.

Malla Reddy explained that while the widely spaced crops could be irrigated using drip pipes, for the closely sown crops like the Foxtail millet or groundnut, the sprinkler was a better method to save on the quantum of water used and increasing the efficiency of protective irrigation.

Their neighbouring plot owners Sujatha and Alivigonda Anil had sown castor in 5 acres and had borrowed water from a nearby borewell owned by another farmer through mutual cooperation and had been providing the critical lifeline to the crop, which was in the pods formation stage.

“Each tanker costs us Rs1,000 and it was being subsidised by the AF Ecology Centre,” Sujatha added.

In another plot, Ramanjiamma had taken 8 acres of land on lease from friends and had sown Foxtail Millet (Korra) two months ago, but the desired growth was not there as it rained only once after sowing and in that situation got support from AF Ecology Centre, which provided sprinklers connected to a nearby borewell.