Production has swelled by leaps and bounds
part of the project is turning traditional land stretches into a productive wealth. There are two kinds of land stretches. The common pasture field is called Gochar and the sacred woodland around temple ‘Oran’.
Orans have been a source of natural wealth like fodder, fuel, timber, berries, roots and herbs. They were regarded as a symbol of prosperity for the community that owned it.
However, they had been lying in neglect. The project has undertaken their revival by spreading awareness among villagers.
GREAT CHALLENGE
International Crop Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics scientist Shailendra Kumar said water was the greatest challenge in the desert area where it needed to be saved not only for daily consumption but also for irrigation.
“We tried our best to promote traditional water storage techniques of the villagers. One such water conservation system is called ‘Khadin’ — an ingenious construction designed to harvest surface runoff water for agriculture.
Principal scientist of Central Arid Zone Research Institute JC Tiwari said villagers need to be made aware of conservation of natural resources and of their managed utilisation.
Consultative Group of International Agriculture Research research programme director Anthony M Whitbread, said famine-like conditions could handled with a judicious blend of the latest research and conventional techniques as had been taken up by the villagers in western Rajasthan'.
Whitbread further said after a village was fully developed under the project, the responsibility to monitor, use and ensure use of the technique would be shifted to village development committee. Hukum Singh of Dhonk village said that he got less quantity of yield through traditional means of farming.
Several times, sowing had to be done on borrowed money and by the time of yield, repayment of the same became an impossible task, he added.
He further said that under this project, a Khadin was prepared that has increased humidity in the ground as it stores rain water.
Fertile soil accompanied by the flowing water has also boosted the productivity of the land.
Now the production in his field has swelled up to double and triple folds, Hukum Singh said. Rajasthan continued to reel under intense heat conditions with Kota recording a maximum temperature of 45 degrees Celsius on Sunday. Heat waves continued unabated in parts of the desert state where Barmer, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Churu and Jaipur sizzled at 44.9, 44.5, 44.4, 44.2 and 44 degrees respectively, according to MeT department. Sriganganagar, Ajmer and Udaipur recorded day temperatures of 43, 42.8 and 42 degrees respectively. The heat wave condition is likely to prevail in isolated areas in the state during the next 24 hours, the MeT said. PTI