The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Indo-French team suggests ways to sustain groundwater

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Friday, Jun 10, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Indo-French team suggests ways to sustain groundwater

Special Correspondent

Flower, vegetable plants in 5 per cent of plots to be helpful

TAKING A NAP: Farmers dozing off at a meeting organised by Indo-French collaborative project at Maheswaram on Thursday. Photo: Satish H.

HYDERABAD: Scientific data available with an Indo-French team has pointed to sustainable groundwater resource management if the farmers grow vegetables or flowers in 5 per cent of the area in every one-acre plot once in two years.

The team comprising scientists of the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) here, Indo-French Centre for Groundwater Research (BRGM, France) and the Groundwater Department organised a meeting of farmers at Maheswaram on the city outskirts on Thursday where its findings were discussed. The team is involved in a collaborative project to carry out groundwater management studies in the Maheswaram watershed covering five adjacent villages.

Making a presentation on behalf of the team, the NGRI Deputy Director, K. Subrahmanyam, said the farmers could continue to cultivate paddy over 95 per cent of the plot but leave the remaining 5 per cent for vegetable or flowers every alternate year. This would sustain groundwater requirement for agriculture for the next few years.

Dr. Subrahmanyam said there was little improvement in the groundwater position through artificial recharge methods. The structures constructed under the Neeru-Meeru programme of the previous TDP Government proved a waste of expenditure, as there was not enough runoff water to percolate. There was no maintenance of the structures either. Perhaps, a combination of artificial recharge methods and changing crop pattern over a limited area of 5 per cent of the plot would help, he added.

K. Raju, Principal Secretary, Panchayatraj and Rural Development, said the experiment of alternate cropping in Maheswaram had the potential of becoming a case study if it was successful. He said the Rural Development Department would take the initiative to convene a meeting of owners of all the 700-odd borewells in Maheswaram to promote the technique.

The NGRI Director, V.P. Dimri, and BRGM representatives, Jean-Marie Gandolfi and Benoit Dewandel, were present.

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