When switching from water-intensive crops to grapes didn’t solve problems for farmers in drought-prone Manerajuri, they found a sustainable water source by digging farm ponds and harvesting rainwater.
Farm ponds flanked by rows of grape vines growing on trellises is what greets a visitor at Manerajuri village in the Tasgaon taluk of the Sangli district.
The village may derive its name from a mythical giant named Mani, but Manerajuri now owes its popularity to vineyards.
Nashik in Maharashtra is known for producing grapes, raisins and wine. But the grape hub of Tasgaon – of which Manerajuri is an integral part – produces India’s best quality grapes. In fact it produces more than double the quantity of Nashik.
Can you believe it was a drought that led to proliferation of farm ponds and to Tasgaon becoming a grape hub?
Manerajuri’s grape farmers grow table grape varieties like Sonaka, Thompson Seedless, Manik Chaman, Sharad Seedless, Anushka and Taj Ganesh. All these best quality varieties are residue-free, meaning the pesticide trace is minimal and is not harmful.
While a major portion of the harvest is sold to fresh fruit traders, a small portion is made into raisins.
Each acre yields between 10 and 12 tonnes annually. A farmer makes Rs 2 to 5 lakh per acre after paying his input and labour costs along with 18% GST.
Naturally the area with vineyards has been expanding every year from 1,500 acres in the early ‘80s to 3,500 acres today.
Collectively Manerajuri’s grape farmers produce over 3.5 lakh quintals of grapes in these 3,500 acres.
Till the late ‘60s, Manerajuri’s farmers used to grow sugarcane, turmeric and betel leaf – all water-intensive crops.
So farmers started switching to other crops. A handful of them experimented with growing grapes by planting a few cuttings.
“Sometime in the 1970’s a few farmers, including my father and grandfather, planted grape cuttings,” said Chandrakant Landge.
Soon others followed.
But Manerajuri’s grape farmers did not taste success immediately.
Drought follows a natural cycle in the region, drying up the farms almost every three years in summer.
With the total rainfall limited to 27 days in Tasgaon taluk, Manerajuri’s grape farmers were entirely dependent on borewells. The borewell water was inadequate to irrigate the vineyards and fulfil the drinking water needs.
The farmers were forced to bring in water to irrigate their fields.
“From 1980 to 2000 we had to rely solely on water tankers to irrigate our farmlands. The tankers brought water from as far away as 15 km,” recalled Landge who has been farming since 1993.
Bringing in water also meant reduced profits.
“A 10,000 litre tanker cost Rs 1,200 which in today’s price would be around Rs 3,500. An acre requires nearly 55 to 60 tankers of water during summer. It was unaffordable,” Landge, who owns 13 acres of vineyards, told Village Square.
To cut costs down and tide over the water scarcity, Suresh Ganpati Ekunde came up with a sustainable solution – digging ponds. He reasoned that he could harvest rainwater in the ponds to keep the vineyards alive.
“It was sometime in 1999 that I dug a farm pond. I imported HDPE (high density polyethylene) sheets from Spain to line the pond,” recalled Ekunde.
The one-acre pond cost him nearly Rs 4 lakh. However, others who followed his example incurred lesser cost.
“Because by then the imported sheets were declared duty-free, thanks to the intervention of the then Union Minister of Agriculture Sharad Pawar,” said Ekunde.
Following the drought of 2004 Manerajuri witnessed a feverish increase in the number of farm ponds.
Most were dug to provide jobs under the MGNREGA scheme following the drought. And people understood that they could harvest rainwater.
Between 2009 and 2012 the farm ponds were constructed under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and MGNREGA schemes.
Since 2016, when the Maharashtra government extended financial support to farmers under the ‘Farm Ponds on Demand’ scheme, the number of farm ponds has been increasing further. Under this scheme, the farmer gets Rs 50,000 or a subsidy of 70 to 75% of the cost of the pond, whichever is less.
“We have to replace the HDPE sheets every sixth or seventh year. As they are manufactured in India now, we have appealed for a subsidy to buy new ones,” said Landge.
Despite other initiatives, like the villagers laying a 30km long pipeline from the Krishna River, it was the farm pond that proved to be a boon. (ALSO READ: Restored farm ponds help Sahariyas tide over drought)
The farm ponds provide uninterrupted irrigation needs for the vineyards. The villagers are proud that their lined ponds show as black rectangles on Google Earth too.
Serving as water harvesting structures, the ponds meet water needs of farms, cattle feed, fish farming, etc. (ALSO READ: Farm ponds improve lives of Singhbhum women)
So the village of Manerajuri with about 15,000 people has 1,150 farm ponds.
“Of the 1,150 farm ponds 435 are self-funded. The rest were subsidised and it shows farmers’ willingness in benefitting from the government’s schemes,” said Sarejrao Amritsagar, the agriculture officer of the taluk.
By digging so many farm ponds, Manerajuri’s grape farmers have turned their drought-prone area into a water-sufficient one.
The farm ponds have also ushered in affluence to the villagers, who now buy better houses, cars, farm equipment and higher education.
Besides bringing the farmers prosperity, the farm ponds have brought Manerajuri another distinction. It’s the village with the highest number of farm ponds in the state.
The lead image at the top of this page shows Manerajuri village that is popular for its farm ponds and vineyards (Photo by Akash Pawar)
Hiren Kumar Bose is a journalist based in Thane, Maharashtra. He doubles up as a weekend farmer.
