Deepening pond to deepen farmers’ pockets
An intervention to make a pond deeper at Surendranagar in Gujarat has brought joy to many farmers in the region by ensuring more water availability and preventing soil erosion.
Vakhatpar village in Sayla block of Surendranagar in Gujarat has been drought prone for a long time. The district receives a meagre 760-967 mm of rainfall annually.
Year after year, this has a detrimental effect on the agricultural livelihood of the farmers in the region.
The intervention – Focused Development Programme (FDP)
In collaboration with HDFC’s Parivartan Project, the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India) (AKRSP) initiated a Focused Development Programme (FDP) in Vakhatpar village. The project’s primary aim was to deepen the existing pond in the village to increase its water-holding capacity.
It sought to mitigate the water scarcity issues and lend support to the farmers during the crisis.
The project would increase water availability in the area and also prevent soil erosion by creating bunds. The pond would also allow the farmers to grow crops round the year.
In the project design, community participation was central to ensuring sustainability and long-term impact of the project.
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Community participation
The project’s implementation could not be done without the active participation and ownership of the local communities. Deepening the pond involved excavating the soil which was then used for creating bunds around the water body. Besides preventing soil erosion the bund would also provide a platform for farmers to grow their crops.
The total length of bunding created under the project was approximately 650 metres. This led to an increase in the pond’s capacity by a whooping sixty-eight litres. On this account the project has been a major success story.
The community’s meaningful participation ensured that the work was completed within a span of just 1.5 months.
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Additional benefits of pond deepening
The bunding around the pond has significantly helped in preventing soil erosion. This in turn has contributed to improving the soil quality in the area. These additional benefits have encouraged farmers to take ownership and ensure sustainability of the project for a long duration.
The Vakhatpar pond deepening project is an excellent example of a successful community-led initiative that addresses a critical issue facing many rural communities across India.
The project’s success highlights the importance of collaboration, community participation and financial support in development projects. The project’s success can be replicated in other villages facing similar challenges to improve water availability and boost the agricultural livelihood of the farmers.
Also Read | Restoration of ponds leads to revival of agriculture
Neha Gupta is a P.S Monitoring and Evaluation officer at AKRSP(I) in Surendranagar, Gujarat.
The lead image at the top shows the pond in Vakhatpar village that was deepened (Photo by AKRSP).
