Area Profile 

Surendranagar is a Saurashtra region district with 10,489 square kilometers of area. Surendranagar is also known as the "Entrance gate of the Saurashtra region”. 8.63% of the total population of the district belongs to the Scheduled Tribes and 12% belongs to the scheduled Castes.

Navapura Village falls under the Dasada Taluka of the district. Navapura is around 71 Km away from the district town. There are total 54 households in the village and are mainly agriculturists and also have animal husbandry as there secondary occupation.

 

Scarcity of the lifeline 

The entire water requirement of the village from irrigation to drinking water for Human and animals is mainly supplied from the village pond. Due to the siltation and depreciation of the pond bund the storage capacity of the pond is reduced resulting into huge scarcity of the water available for the villagers. In arrival of the situation irrigation support from the pond water has been stopped and thus the farmers practices rainfed agriculture mainly. With this less availability of green fodder for the livestock of the village had affected the milk production of the village. Due to this single crop a year and with less milk production the economical situation of the villagers was also striking the bell slowly.

Intervention 

DWDU Surendranagar has been implementing Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) in the district and was acting as a district agency for the programme. Sanctioned in the year 2009-10 Navapura village was taken up as project village under IWMP-8 and Wild Ass Sanctuary, Dhrangadhra was appointed as the Project Implementation Agecy (PIA) for the project. IWMP has been working for Soil and Water conservation in a watershed area. As a part of participatory planning De-siltation of the village pond was taken on urgent basis under Entry Point Activity (EPA) head.

 

Outcome 

9193 CM de-siltation was done with in an expenditure of Rs. 3.56 lakhs from IWMP cost and the storage capacity of the village pond was increased to and the bund was strengthened with the excavation. Due to this the availability of water has irrigated near about 80 ha has increased and the total production of cumin were sought highest as near about 600 Qt. from the area the average productivity of the cumin is about 750 Kg/ha which is four times higher than average productivity of the village before the intervention. Out of total household 54 households practicing agriculture in the village and among them 26 farmer are getting irrigation water from the village pond. Before completion of the intervention the average income was near about Rs. 34,000/ ha. from cotton crop and after the availability of irrigation it went up to Rs. 43,500 and cropping pattern of the area has been changed due to availability of irrigation water. It also increased the milk production. Now the availability of fodder for the animal has gone up and it has been observed in increasing of milk production of the village. As per the villages survey, over three – forth of the farmers are found to be benefiting from this De-siltation of the village pond.

Conclusion 

In these two years the project has changed the whole of Navapura from one of abject poverty and underdevelopment to prosperity and on the development path. Today, Navapura is a success story and inspirational model for water conservation measures. These activities have had a major impact on the area; and have changed the face Navapura village. The lost flora and fauna are returning and even the villagers are reaping its benefit. The impact of this project has been manifolds. It has checked soil erosion and has helped the soil to retain its moisture. Also, Fodder and Fuel wood is available a plenty. In fact with each year the prodution has grown and so has the distribution.


“Assessment: The community participation has been the key to the success of Watershed Development Project in the Area. It was ensured all through the implementation of the project that the people’s enthusiasm and interest does not wane away after the initial euphoria. Most importantly, the project functionaries’ from the beginning was a distant spectator, only providing the technical inputs while actual nuisances of design, execution and management was left to the users committee. This micro-level planning has provided people with an opportunity of earning of managing the scheme and also given them the confidence that they can now do the government support. This project has truly been the project of the people, for the people and managed by the people. The project wasteland development project has raised hopes that wasteland can be made fertile and bring about prosperity to the area.”


Contributor: DWDU Surendranagar, Hariom Nirala (Technical Expert)