Farm pond and drip irrigation keep a vineyard alive through the drought at Ambejawalge

Dharashiv: With falling groundwater levels creating a serious shortage of water for drinking and farming, Sunita Biranje, a farmer at Ambejawalge in Dharashiv taluka, has set an example in water management. By carefully using water stored in a farm pond, she has kept her two-acre vineyard going through the drought.

Biranje farms three acres: two acres of grapes, half an acre of onion and a farm pond measuring 30 metres by 30 metres. During the monsoon she filled the pond to the brim with borewell water. The borewell now yields barely an inch of water for half an hour, and even that goes into the pond. Drip irrigation for the grapes and sprinklers for the onion save about 60 per cent of water, and she plans to keep the vineyard alive on this water for the next eight months.

Last year the vineyard earned her ₹5 lakh. Its October pruning has just been completed, and this season's crop should come in four months. Without the farm pond she would have had to abandon the vineyard, she says; storing monsoon or borewell water and using it frugally is the only way to fight drought.

The planning has also ensured drinking water for the family and its animals. To save every drop, the family has put off other crops for now and is concentrating on the vineyard. Most farmers have no water left and borewells are drying up, but the farm pond has kept the vineyard and onion alive, said Prashant Biranje.

Source: Esakal