The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : ICRISAT watershed helps farmers

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

ICRISAT watershed helps farmers

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Rain arrived late in several dryland areas leading to near-drought conditions and water scarcity but Kothapally village in Ranga Reddy district had enough water in its wells for both drinking and for irrigating crops.

This was thanks to a project taken up by International Crops Research Institute for the Semi- Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and a consortium of international, national, governmental and non-governmental organisations to empower people of the village to cope drought through community watersheds.

High yield

“Thanks to ICRISAT, water shortage in our village belongs to the past,” Mohammed Azam, a farmer of Kothapally, is quoted as saying by the ICRISAT in a press release. The productivity has increased immensely due to water saving systems and ICRISAT’s improved crop varieties, integrated pest management and judicious application of fertilizer.

The community watershed at Kothapally has become a model replicated in many other sites in India, China, Thailand and Vietnam and now in East and Central Africa. According to William Dar, Director General of ICRISAT, the use of such watersheds as an entry point for agricultural and rural development has converged many interventions to improve agricultural productivity and livelihoods of poor farmers.

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Andhra Pradesh