Success Stories
Here is the success story of a farmer from Hubli who implemented bore well recharge in his field and is now enjoying better farming.
Chitranjan Kallannavar, in association with Sankalpa Rural Development Society recharged a borewell in his field a year ago which is yielding excellent results now. The borewell, which is now always filled with water, has solved many issues related to farming. He loves talking to people about the importance of water and the need for saving rain water. “I am very happy to have done this in my field. Bore well recharge has ended the water scarcity I was facing for many years”, says Chitranjan.
Devendrappa Basanthappa Basti
Aged about 57, holding 7 hectares of land in the survey no. of 64/69, agriculture is his main source of income. Paddy, maize, soya bean and sugar cane are his main crops. In his land he has 160 mango horticulture species, 116 bamboo species and 120 teak forestry species. In 1990, the first bore well was drilled at a depth of around 180 ft. Again, in 1994 he decided to drill another bore well with a depth of 150 ft. The water from both bore wells was not enough for the irrigation of his entire land. As a result he dug out another bore well. But he failed in getting water. In his land he has a total of 15 bore wells, and out of them, 13 failed leaving only 2 that are functioning.
From 2004 onwards the second bore well eventually decreased the water delivery to only 3 to 5 hours per day in the post monsoon period. It is even hard to get water in summer. So, eventually he thought of closing the bore well. In June 2010, Devendrappa took up the bore well recharge activity and made sure all the drainage rain water diverted to this bore well.
He expressed his opinion on this bore well recharge by saying “now this bore well increased the out flow of ground water and I am even extending it to irrigate the field”. In the month of February 2011, he adopted the sprinkler irrigation method for sugar cane crop and he gradually gained confidence about the bore well recharge. For bore well recharge, he contributed Rs.11,665.00 and the project contribution from SRDS Rs.11665.00. The total expenditure was Rs. 23310.00.
Basavaraj Sivappa Unkal:
Aged about 45 years, holding 1.2 hectare of land in 17 survey no, his major crops are maize, soyabean and paddy, of 95 horticulture species. He dug a bore well in his land in 1986 with a depth of 240 ft. That bore well functioned in good condition initially, but from 2006 onwards, the bore well out flow decreased. Eventually it became difficult to get water flow for 6 hours in a day. He realized the importance of rain water harvesting and executed the bore well recharge in his field in June, 2010. For the recharge, he needed runoff water from his land. So, he diverted all the runoff water to the bore well location through a diversion channel across the slope. He realized the positive impact of the bore well recharge during the last monsoon soon. Now the bore well out flow has increased to 16 hours/day. For his bore well recharge he contributed Rs. 10363.00 and the SRDS project contribution was Rs. 10363.00. The total expenditure was Rs.20727.00. He is very confident and humbly saying “I percolated more rain water in to the bore well through recharge pit than I took out from the bore well”.
