Chhattisgarh NEWS : The hard work of the farmer can be successful only if the farmer has water available for irrigation on time. Many farmers living on the banks of the rivulet in Gramme Panchayat Bardar were not able to get the desired benefit from their fields due to lack of irrigation resources. The entire rainwater used to flow from the nullah flowing on the side of the village and used to reach the Hasdeo river further and then by the time summer came, the nullah used to be completely waterless. The rainwater that used to flow in the fields during the rainy season could not even provide irrigation and drinking water to their animals. But a concrete check dam built under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in the last financial year now keeps a corner of the village green in every season. Here half a dozen farmers have started taking advantage of irrigation in more than 17 acres of their fields with the help of pumps and have started taking up two crops and three crops.
Even in the scorching heat of May, the crop of urad is flourishing in the fields of dozens of farmers of Bardar. Bharatpur is a town and a nagar panchayat in Mandsaur district in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. A river flows through this village. It was a rain-fed canal with sufficient water in the rainy season. But after the rains, the water started receding and by the time summer arrived, it was completely dry. This drain was selected and surveyed under and a concrete check dam was proposed to be constructed at a suitable place last year. As per the proposal received from the Gramme Sabha, the Gramme Panchayat Bardar was made the construction agency while approving the work. Under the supervision of Technical Assistant Rahul, the Gramme Panchayat completed the work in a quality manner in a time bound manner. With this work, more than one thousand man-days of employment was also provided to the villagers. A large amount of water is being collected here after the check dam is built. The water level in the vicinity is improving with the backwaters being about a kilometre behind the checkdam.
At the same time, farmers need water to irrigate their crops. The check dam built in Morghaniya nullah has increased the two-crop irrigation facility in more than 17 acres of land belonging to a total of 20 farmers like Satyanarayan, Phagunath Singh, Rajkumar, Baldev, Babulal, Rajkishun, Suresh and Shivprasad living in the gramme panchayat. These farmers said that the problem of irrigation has been solved with the construction of checkdams in the drains that used to dry up earlier. Now we are earning good profits by sowing crops at our own will. At present, about ten acres of urad and vegetable crops are grown from the land adjacent to this check dam. Earlier, farmers used to earn good profits by cultivating paddy and wheat. Overall, the change in lifestyle and standard of living from one resource to many households is visible. In such a situation, a concrete check dam built under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA has started bringing changes in their economic and social condition