Daily Archives: March 30, 2016

This progressive farmer’s effort pays off

Agriculture, Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature
Timely returns:The water harvesting pit in the farm of S Jayapal Reddy of Kesamudram in Warangal district.–Photo: M. Murali
Timely returns:The water harvesting pit in the farm of S Jayapal Reddy of Kesamudram in Warangal district.–Photo: M. Murali

Farm pond dug up in Jayapal Reddy’s field three years ago begins to yield water

To spend Rs. 10 lakh to dig a farm pond is not possible to every farmer. But S Jayapal Reddy, who with a fond hope of harvesting water, went on and dug up a huge open pit.

“I have about 50 acres land here but as there was no water I embarked upon the task of getting a water harvest pit dug up in my land about three years ago. The pit is 30 feet deep and 100 feet wide.

This effort started yielding some water which is enough to irrigate about 10 acres,” he explained. He draws water with three motors for about five hours daily to wet his paddy fields. He strongly argues in favour of massive plantation and digging up water harvesting structures everywhere to conserve every drop of water.

According to him, the huge trench in his fields also helps recharge bore wells and open wells around his fields belonging to other farmers.

There were no proper rains for the past three years. As a result , he groundwater table also went down and with no irrigation water in these parts of the mandal, the farmers were finding it difficult to continue farming operations with meagre water in extreme weather conditions.

Going by the advice of scientists, many decided to opt for farm ponds, recharge pits and trenches in fields to hold little water when it rained.

“We hope to get good rains this year. But not much is being done to hold as much as possible.

Motivating others

Here we are motivating farmers to opt for farm ponds and rain water harvesting pits wherever possible,” Mr Jayapal Reddy explained.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Telangana / by Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao / Kesamudram (Warangal Dt) – April 26th, 2016

Aswaraopeta has huge potential for apiculture

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature

The enormous potential for promotion of apiculture (beekeeping) as a means to provide alternative income to farmers is waiting to be tapped in Aswaraopeta, the horticultural hub of Telangana.

Aswaraopeta and its surrounding mandals including Dammapeta in Khammam district account for the lion’s share of horticultural crops in the entire Telangana State.

Oil palm plantations are mainly concentrated in Aswaraopeta and Dammapeta mandals. The total area under the oil palm cultivation is 30,000 acres in the district. Coconut plantations are spread in over 2,000 acres in the two mandals.

Aswaraopeta mandal encompasses a sprawling coconut seed garden, horticulture research station, and around 200 private horticulture nurseries. The mandal consisting of nurseries of diverse range of horticulture crops including coconut, oil palm, mango, and cashew is considered most suitable for beekeeping.

Availability of flower bearing plants that bloom almost throughout the year and abundant nectar to support beekeeping activity on a commercial scale make Aswaraopeta mandal the ideal place for taking up the agro-based income generation activity, notes Prabhakar, an oil palm grower of Aswaraopeta.

Beekeeping has lot of financial potential as it helps produce a wide range of bee products including honey, jelly, wax and pollen which are in huge demand in the market.

The drastic decline in honey collection in Bhadrachalam Agency has necessitated the need for promotion of apiculture to meet the burgeoning demand for honey in the open market, he points out.

Apart from honey production, beekeeping activity also aids cross pollination thereby helping in maximising the horticultural crop yield, says R Srinivasa Rao, Deputy Director, Horticulture Department, Khammam.

A proposal to provide training to some field level functionaries and horticulture farmers of the mandal on scientific methods of beekeeping at a reputed institute in the neighbouring State is under consideration, he says.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Telangana / by P. Sridhar / Khammam – March 23rd, 2016