Village Exposure Program

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only. And rest of months they work on marginal wages. Water scarcity is also a problem. This village only has two wells and used mainly for drinking water.

Social connectivity:

Burudi people are not fully aware the government schemes. Even these people do not know about the aganwadi. The govt schemes like soil health card and crop insurance are not reached in this village. People are growing their traditional crops in the same ways. This village also do not have any toilets.

Proposed Solutions:

The typical monsoon seasons starts from mid- June and ends by October in every year. The typical average rainfall in this region varies from 1310 mm per year. But unfortunately water conservation is a major problem faced by this region. As Rice is the major crop being cultivated in this region, the following methods can be utilized to increase the productivity per acre.

Various proposed solutions that can be beneficial are described as follows:

Increasing yield using appropriate cultivation techniques – “System of Rice Intensification”

Rich is a major crop in this region. This method is a low water, labour-intensive, organic method that uses younger seedlings singly spaced and typically hand weeded with special tools. This method uses approx. 50 % less water as compared to the traditional method.

As the local labour is not a problem, NGOs and government bodies should enhance the contribution for imparting the proper education to learn and adopt the technique among the villages. This will help is proper conservation of water and the balance water can be utilized in growing other crops, which demands less amount of water.

Rain water harvesting:

This is the easiest method to conserve water in rural village and the same can be done economically. The same can be understood from the underlying picture .The roof top ran water can be stored in plastic tanks and can be used for daily usage such as for bathing/ for drinking water for various domestic animals etc.

Construction of Dobha:

More and more Dobha(farm pond) should be initiated by the Governments, NGOs for storing water in the rainy season. The same can be utilized in farming paddy crops and various other activities. Construction of a 30*30 Doba is expected to cost 25-30K INR.

Construction of check dams:

Construction of check dams should be promoted by the Governments, NGOs for storing water in the nearby rivers. This will really helpful for cultivation purpose.

Construction of Contours:

Contours are generally half circle surface water storage places and these can be solution for irrigation. They are cheap to make, only one man-days is required to make one contour and can provide a backup irrigation facility in small farm lands.

Initiation of crop rotation

The studied village only used rice as the source of production in a single year and no other crop was cultivated. Crop rotation technique can be used for better cultivation and increased in productivity of farming. Moreover, the financial condition of farmers can be increased if other vegetables, which demand less water, can be grown.

Increase awareness of Government programme:

Initiative from the local block under Dhalbhumgarh must be initiated for the intimation of various government sponsored welfare schemes for the necessary intimation. This will help in creating public awareness and development.

Assumptions & Risks:

The caveats associated with the solutions proposed in this report are:

1. Villagers have/will collate required funds to implement these solutions. If not, they can get sponsored to effectuate one of proposed solutions.

2. Villagers are willing to put time and man-days to see proposed solutions transform into realities.

3. Assumption is that Village Pradhan would corroborate with one of solutions proposed; since villagers respect and look upto him.

4. Working on these solutions will not impact existing livelihoods of villagers in a significant manner.

Conclusion:

Gram Burudi is encumbered with limitations typically associated with very poor villages in India. Water scarcity is live and evident here. Villagers have been bearing the brunt of this evil since many decades. However, given its strong social fabric and willingness of villagers to proactively work-on and adopt new and efficient methods of water conversation there seem to be fair chance that villagers can overcome this problem. Adoption of Rice Intensification, Rain Water Harvesting, Crop Rotation & Construction of Doba, CheckDam, Contours seem to be way forward towards diminution of water scarcity problems in Burudi.