Drip irrigation a boon for horticulture farmers

Kuderu (Anantapur): Sridhar, a small farmer of Narayanapuram village in Kuderu mandal in the district is cultivating groundnut and other vegetable crops in one acre of land and grape orchards in 3 acres of land just with one borewell available in his field. 

He has installed Micro Irrigation System in his field to judiciously use scarce water available through one borewell for grape garden spread over three acres. 

In the 2017-18 crop year, he reaped a harvest of 85 tonnes of grapes and sold them at Rs 39,000 per tonne, thus getting a gross income of more than Rs 30 lakh and his net income was Rs 22 lakh. 

Several farmers of his native village Narayanapuram are now emulating Sridhar by installing micro-irrigation drip systems and saving every drop of water in a district where water is a scarce commodity. 

All the farmers are now covered under micro Irrigation and raising commercial crops like grapes, pomegranates and water melons, etc. Sridhar told The Hans India that drip irrigation system provided to him at 90 per cent subsidy has ushered in a record crop yield and helped him to earn a net profit of Rs 22 lakh.

He said that he raised vegetables and groundnut in one acre of land which also helped him earn substantial profit through drip irrigation systems.
Andhra Pradesh Micro Irrigation Project Director Venkateshwarlu told The Hans India that all farmers are presently being covered under micro-irrigation plan and majority of the farmers in the village are reaping rich dividends in the horticulture crops including mango, grapes, bananas and guava plantations. 

The horticulture plantations are giving long-term dividends to the farmers and also standard and guaranteed income to them. Now the entire village farmers who installed drip irrigation systems have taken to horticulture plantations. 

Sridhar earned Rs 22 lakh net profit in one single crop year prompting other farmers to follow suit. The horticulture plantations are being raised in an extent of 7,344 hectares under drip irrigation systems.

By Ravi P Benjamin