The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Fallow lands now bringing boons

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 13, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Fallow lands now bringing boons

R. Jagadeeswara Rao

Fallow lands have been converted into fertile lands thanks to completion of Vamsadhara Right Main Canal

Boddepalli Rajagopala Rao Right Main Canal of Vamsadhara brimming with water

Srikakukalm: “It is like the arrival of the long-awaited new-born into the family.” This comment by a beaming farmer of Lankam in Gara mandal sums up the happy feelings of farmers in Srikakulam rural and Gara mandals in Srikakulam district, who for the first time, harvested crop and took cartloads of paddy to their homes.

Nearly 30,000 acres of fallow lands, hardly suitable for cultivation of any crop, have been converted into fertile lands, a development that could change the lifestyles of farmers in these parts for the better, thanks to the completion of Right Main Canal of the Vamsadhara project which supplied assured irrigation water to the lands in the two backward mandals. A visit to these two mandals revealed that farmers had never had it so good. There is continuous supply of water in the canal. Tanks are brimming with water. Even groundwater level has improved and dried borewells are back in operation. This is the happy situation in villages like Silagam, Singuvalasa, Lankam, Thandemvalasa and others in the two mandals. The result: farmers, who were struggling to raise one crop, have already harvested the kharif crop and are now preparing for the rabi crop.

High yield

The RMC of the Vamsadhara project was taken up as part of ‘Jalayagnam’ programme and water was released into the canal by Chief Minister,Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy a few months back. Mandal Agricultural Officer Raviprakash claimed that the yield had crossed 30 bags an acre with ‘Swarna’ variety of seed.

“We are grateful to Revenue Minister Dharmana Prasada Rao, but for whose persistence RMC could not have been materialised in three years,” said Ravada Yerranna of Lankam village. An interesting development because of the RMC is the return of one M. Kodanada Rao. He had left his village and two acres of fallow land to work as an electrical worker in Srikakulam. But thanks to the RMC, now he was confident of cultivating his two acres twice a year and have a decent standard of living. Similarly the family of Gottapu Appayya left his village for Nellore in search of work. He has returned now, since there was work and the wage is good enough to sustain his family.

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