Artificial recharging for enhancement of ground water
ICAR-KVK Hirehalli has taken up the National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project since 2009-10. There are many Natural Resource Management (NRM) and crop management interventions advocated by the KVK which were adopted by the farmers. Of late, farmers themselves started developing their own innovations in the mentioned fields, taking the inspiration from the interventions. Sri. N M Mahesh is one such farmer from the NICRA village - Durgada Nagenahalli, Koratagere taluk of Tumakuru District. He has developed an innovative method of recharging bore wells. Due to the renovation of checkdams under the project by the KVK, his open well got additional seepage water. During peak monsoon season, the excess water gets overflow from the well. He innovatively diverted the excess water from open well, into his defunct bore well, through a pipe line. The pipe was connected between the open and bore well. Due to this, the excess water start pouring into the bore well and reach the bottom aquifers . This has recharged the bore wells in and around his field. About 32 bore wells have thus got recharged and started working. This has helped the nearby farmers to bring back about 8 ha area under irrigation, which was not so earlier. By considering this innovation, ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation (Regional station at Ooty, Tamil Nadu) has awarded him 'Best Farmer Award - 2016' for his pioneering work on 'Artificial recharging for enhancement of ground water'. The award was given to him by the District Collector on 20-10-2016 on their Foundation Day. He is an inspiration to all the farmers in NICRA village and other adjacent villages.
Updated on 22.10.2016
