Why the farmer is going to borrow money for his crop
inputs? Why does he suicide? Is he solely responsible for his suicide? Or
else. Whether his production is lesser than his investments? Is the loss is at
production level or marketing level? Who is responsible? Is the farmer himself
or the middle man or Government officials or the politicians or the people in
the society as a whole?
India has 165 M. ha of cultivated land.
Out of which 108 M. ha of land is under drought prone area belongs to 99
districts in 13 states, which is nearly 70% of the cultivated area that is
being subjected to vagaries of monsoon. It is experienced that out of 4 years,
once in 3 years there is complete failure of crops, once in 4 years there is a
good crop and in the remaining 2 years average yields can be expected. It means
that the dry land farmer never come out of his debts.
What
is necessary for the crops to grow? Water? Yes, water. Water is the vital resource for all living things.
So also for the plants. No living thing exists without water. It is the prime
requirement after the air.
In
drought prone areas water is deficit. Is India a water deficit country? No. Not
at all. The average rainfall of India is 1200mm and it is more than the world
average rainfall of 990mm.The total amount of rainfall received in India is
about 400 M. ham i.e. 4000 billion cum. Out of which, 165 M. ham of water is
going waste and draining into the seas. If this can be harnessed, It is sufficient
to irrigate all the cultivable area of 165 M. ha; If manned properly.
Can
we solve the farmer’s suicide by scraping of his loan every time? Is it
guanine? Certainly it cannot solve the problem. Instead, by supplying water to
all the drought prone areas, the problem can be solved. Can‘t the famer get
profitable returns from his farm, if sufficient water is provided? Certainly,
he can. If, so where is the necessity for him to commit suicide?
Is the watershed programme yielding
desirable results which are intended to mitigate the drought situations? Is
this programme able to mitigate the drought situation? Is there any
technicality in the present day of execution? Are they systematically executed?
Can we differentiate a watershed area and non-watershed area when we travel
across? Is it not a wasteful expenditure? Are the ‘in-pits’ being executed in
the watershed programme are useful? How useful the check dams, rock fill dams
and soil conservation works are? Are these activities mitigating
drought conditions? Programs like Kanuga plantation, Khus as a barrier, Indira
Kranthi Pathakam, plantation programmes etc. are yielding desired results?
For
all these programmes water is the main input which is scarce in drought prone
areas. Without water no plant can survive. One must bear this in mind before
planning a programme. Without providing water, planting of trees/ growing of
crops is a gamble in the monsoon. They cannot alleviate the drought situation
and stabilize the crop production. So, water need to be provided to the drought
prone areas to bring sustainability in crop production in these areas.
How
to provide water to these areas? By constructing the dams, check dams, or by
taking up of Soil conservation works or inter-linking of rivers? Can they solve
the problem? No. It is proved that they can’t solve.
The
only way to solve the problem is first we have to nationalise the rivers of
India. We have a network of road ways, Railways which are nationalised. Why not
river waters? The only way to solve the problem is inter linking of all rivers
of India through Trench cum contour channels.
How
many channels are needed? At what contour levels/intervals? What is the width
and depth of the channel? How they are
useful? What are the advantages? What are the limitations? All these need to be
discussed with subject matter specialists thoroughly before designing the
trench cum contour channels.
Is it possible to execute trench cum contour
channels? What are the hurdles during execution? Can they be resolved or cannot
be? How to design them? Whether the present technology available in India is
sufficient for the execution? Can they arrest
the natural calamities like floods, drought?
Can they mitigate the high wind speed?
Can they stop the losses caused due to floods? Can they alleviate
droughts? In order to achieve them, how to design the trench-cum contour
channels? By Inter-linking of rivers with a trench cum contour channels, can
they change the climate of the area from monsoonal? Can they change and improve the health of the
soil? Can they reduce the hazards of air pollution and water pollution and soil
problems and get back the healthy environment? Yes, we can solve.
