On a winter morning, days after harvesting their kharif paddy crop, farmers Deba Kirsani and Sukra Majhi, at Totaguda village in Odisha's Malkangiri district, were busy preparing their fields for a second crop. Until two years ago, this activity would have been unusual for the rain-fed Malkangiri district. “The rainfall is erratic in these parts and we go through prolonged dry spells, so we could only grow paddy during the kharif season. Paddy cultivation is not very profitable but we had no choice. And once the paddy season is over, we either go to nearby towns in search of work or work on the fields of other farmers,” says Kirsani, 27, who owns 2.5 acres in Totaguda. In 2019-20, the district administration started a micro-irrigation system – part of a special programme for the promotion of integrated farming – that proved to be a game-changer for farmers in the district, who now harvest at least two crops annually. “Because of the micro-irrigation system, for the past two years, I have been growing groundnuts after harvesting paddy, and earning an additional Rs 55,000-Rs 60,000 a year,” says Kirsani, who now plans to grow vegetables in addition to groundnuts. The micro-irrigation initiative, implemented in four villages under different blocks in Malkangiri, is the brainchild of Collector & District Magistrate Vishal Singh, who is among the 19 winners of The Indian Express Excellence in Governance Awards for 2020 and 2021. The biennial awards celebrate the finest work done by District Magistrates, women and men considered the foot-soldiers of governance as they script change that touches the lives of countless people across the country. Speaking to The Indian Express, Singh said Malkangiri, besides being a rain-fed district, had few irrigation facilities because of which farmers couldn’t grow a second crop. “We drew water from different perennial streams in the area, including Hatiamba nullah in Totaguda, and established a lift irrigation system, as part of which water was channeled through a 1,500-metre main line and smaller branch lines. The water was provided across the command area using portable sprinklers and rainguns that were placed in more than 20 places. With this project, we also aim to ensure sufficient soil moisture during the kharif season,” said Singh. In Totaguda, the micro-irrigation system benefits 23 households, covering a command area of around 53 acres. Singh said that to ensure that everybody had a stake in the success of the project, the administration named villagers as 'partners', who not only made financial contributions when needed but also helped with physical labour while digging land to lay pipelines and to manage the projects. Of the Rs 19 lakh spent on the implementation of the project, villagers pitched in with Rs 3 lakh. “Before undertaking the project, we mapped the area in consultation with the villagers. We also surveyed the surface geology and cropping pattern and trained the villagers on efficient water management,” said Soumya Ranjan, who extends technical support to the project. Sukra Majhi, a farmer from Totaguda who earlier worked as a daily labourer after the kharif season, now grows groundnuts on his 3.5 acres – he earned Rs 50,000 during the last rabi season. “My wife and I no longer have to work on others' fields. Earlier, it was difficult to make ends meet, but now I am happy I can secure the future of my three children,” says Majhi, adding that he now plans to cultivate cash crops such as sunflower, mustard, broccoli and capsicum instead of groundnut, which “consumes a lot of water”. In Chitapari-3, a settlement colony that's home to those displaced by the Machkund irrigation project in Koraput district, Ghasi Kirsani, 55, who grows green gram and groundnut on his 5 acres, says, “Earlier, after the kharif season, a lot of people from our village were forced to migrate to the cities because there was nothing to do on the farms – I used to work as a daily labourer in Balimela town. But now we all stay back in the village and grow more crops. Last year, I earned Rs 90,000 from green gram and groundnut.” With the initiative translating into better yields, the farmers say they now want better marketing facilities for the cash crops and want the mandi system to be streamlined. Collector Vikas Singh said that with the project successfully implemented in four villages, the administration is now planning to undertake similar projects in other blocks of the district, especially Machkund and Khairput, which too have poor irrigation facilities.
