CSR
Transforming a Desert
Success story of water augmentation programme at Pudukkottai District of Tamil Nadu.
H PCL as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility
( CSR) in partnership with M. S. Swaminathan
Research Foundation( MSSRF), Chennai initiated a collaborative project in supporting the marginal farmers to augment water resources in the villages of Illuppur region of Pudukottai district, Tamil Nadu since 2012. M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation( MSSRF), a research and development organisation has been working in varied ecosystems to support the poor and marginalized farmers towards food and livelihood security based on its mandate,“ Pro poor, Pro women and Pro nature”.
So far the ground water augmentation programme has been implemented in three phases and the fourth phase is currently progressing in the field. The intervention has created a significant and long lasting impact in the life and livelihoods of small holding farmers through enabling an access to small scale irrigation by strengthening and renovating water bodies. This initiative is emerging as a potential model to enhance the income of the small holding farmers in semi-arid and arid agroecosystems across the country.
CONSECUTIVE DROUGHTS AND WATER STRESS Pudukkottai is among the drought prone districts of Tamil Nadu state, and Illuppur, in the western part of the district receives only 620 mm of rainfall annually. The cropping system is largely rain fed supplemented with small scale irrigation. There are no assured irrigation sources other than monsoon dependant small village level tanks and ponds.
Ground water is the main source for irrigation and the aquafer is very shallow, hence structurally small open wells are best suitable to draw water for irrigation. In the last seven years, below average rainfall has adversely impacted the storage and refill of ground water in tanks and open wells, respectively. Subsequently, the ground water table reduced to 10-14 M, making the open wells dry, unproductive and defunct. The tanks also slowly silted with obstruction in the water flow with reduced storage capacity. As an impact, farmers left the portion of land fallow or planted perennial drought tolerant trees like eucalyptus. Many farmers migrated – permanently or temporarily to industrial urban areas like Tirupur or Coimbatore to find an alternate non-farm livelihoods.
WATER AUGMENTATION PROGRAMME Encountering this situation, HPCL decided to undertake a three phase water augmentation programme in Illuppur region. So far, 40 agri open wells were deepened, two irrigation tanks were renovated and one community open
20 ISSUE 1 2018