Dear Supporters,

 

I am Ibrahim, a Milaap Open Fellow. I recently visited the Shekhapur and Kasewadi villages in Beed district, courtesy of Mr. Subhash, Director of AFARM., Since 1969, AFARM has been working towards all facets of rural and agricultural development in Maharashtra. They have been providing training and resources to farmers and NGOs working in rural development. Currently, they are supporting  400 member NGOs.

 

Currently, to help farmers, AFARM, with a local organisation, is building watershed structures in a total of five villages. Three of them are Shekhapur, Kasewadi, and Pangulgaon in Asthi Taluka (Tehsil) of Beed district. Khadki and Aljapur are the other two from Karmala Taluka (Tehsil) of Solapur district. “The villages have been chosen where the need was the most, and more number of farmers would be able to derive benefit from the work,” says Mr. Subhash.

 

Some of the structures are Cement Nala Bunds (Check dams) that had been built by the govt. some ten to twelve years ago. Such structures need to be reinforced after such a long time. Most of the structures built by AFARM were Earthen Nala Bunds. A total of 14 such structures were built in the five villages combined. The average depth of these structures is 1.5 metre.

 

To build these structures, a lot of black soil is removed. This black soil does not allow water to percolate underground. Once it’s removed, the rainwater will be able to recharge the groundwater levels once rainfall takes place. Moreover, this black soil can be used by farmers as it is a rich source of nutrients and can replace the use of fertilisers.

 

A total of 600 farmers will directly benefit from these structures. Most of these farmers have farmland less than five acres. Besides these, around 550 farmers will be able to reap indirect benefits from these structures. The structures were placed at strategic locations where they would be near the borewells that are used by farmers so that maximum farmers benefit from these.

 

The farmers and village folks of Shekhapur came to know that these structures were being built using donations by people from India and abroad. They expressed their heartfelt gratitude. “We believe that it is the support of such donors and NGOs that we still have the will to fight back. A lot of folks amongst us were thinking of migrating. Some left  but we decided to stay back and do whatever we can to help build these structures,” said one of the village elders.

 

The farmers have already started seeing good results owing to  the structure. Here are some pics of the structures.