Tamil farmers and the water issue

AurovilleToday met with four local farmers who irrigate their land in the area of Kuilapalayam. Arivasu’s main crop is cashew, but he irrigates coconut trees. Paneerselvam has 15 acres of irrigated cashews. Satiyabalan irrigates three acres of coconuts, and Gnanamani (Mani) irrigates seven acres of coconuts.

All the farmers are aware that there is a water problem. They know of two wells in the Kuilapalayam area which have gone dry, and when Satiyabalan last took out his well pipes, he found that the water level in his well had dropped 20 feet. This means that wells have to be dug deeper and deeper to find water. In the Kuilapalayam area, they say they have to drill to a minimum depth of 150 feet to have an assured water supply. Around the Abri/Matrimandir area, the wells have to be drilled to 500 feet.

But why is the water level going down? The farmers are sure that it is because of changes in the weather. In recent years there has been less rain, (they note the village pond has not overflowed for the past 10 years) so there is less water available to be drawn out of the ground. While they are aware that there are many more wells today, and that people in the village use far more water for their household needs now because most of them have a tap or pump near the house, they dismissed the suggestion that over-pumping by the farmers could be a factor in declining water levels. They point out that less land is irrigated today than 20 years ago, because more agricultural land is being turned into housing plots.

But how much do they actually pump on a daily basis? None of them had really checked, although one noted that his 15 hp. submersible pump pumped 2,000 litres in five minutes, and another admitted that sometimes he didn’t turn his pump off for over a month. Mani also has a big 15 hp pump, but he does not irrigate his coconuts at night.

They were all aware that many wells in beachside villages like Bommayapalayam and Pillaichavady that are saline. However, the water in their wells was still good. Again, they blamed the salination of wells on inadequate rainfall rather than over-pumping, noting that during big monsoons in the past, the pressure of water flowing from the land had always washed the salt back into the sea. As Paneerselvam puts it, “the ocean has entered inside and there is not enough rain to push it away”.

Mani also felt, however, that beachside erosion was the reason for the salination of beachside wells as it allowed seawater to enter these wells.

Did they think the salination would spread inland? They mentioned that some wells closer to the village already had some salt in the water, so they expected the salination to spread. But how long would it take to reach the village (which is about one kilometre inland)? “Probably four or five years,” said Aruvasu, although Mani, whose coconut fields are actually between the village and the beach, felt it could take as long one to two generations.

If they were convinced that if the farmers pumped less there would be less chance of the salination spreading, would they be willing to cut down on irrigation? Of course, they said. But everybody would have to cut down, not just the four of them. And how do you get everybody to do that?

Nevertheless, as Mani puts it, “We should reserve water for future people, so we should use the minimum”. In fact, in spite of the free electricity provided for farmers, they were all interested in finding more efficient ways of irrigating their crops. Arivasu was keen to try drip irrigation. He had heard that there is a government subsidy on drip irrigation systems (the government pays three-quarters of the cost) and had been many time to the local Block Development Office to get details, but so far he had had no luck. He is still not sure if the subsidy is available in this area.

Mani is very aware that the open channel water distribution system he uses for his coconuts is very inefficient and wasteful of water. He had tried a ‘water gun’ on his coconuts, but this had not proved very successful in conserving water and it had actually exposed the roots of the young seedlings. Now he definitely would change over to a sprinkler system if there is a government subsidy available.

In fact, Mani was the most concerned about water wastage. “In the villages, the taps are left running and water is overflowing. The children should be taught in schools to use the minimum of water, then they will teach their parents. I think this is the only way to change things.”

If they think less water would be available in future, would they consider changing to crops that need less irrigation?

It turns out their main concern, when it comes to what they decide to cultivate, is not shortage of water but the shortage of field labour. “We cannot go back to our old cultivation system because we can no longer get the labour,” says Arivasu. “The old crops need too much labour. Therefore, cashews and coconuts are the perfect crop because they don’t require so much labour and we get a good price for them. Also, only cash crops like cashews would survive a long drought.”

Cashews are not generally irrigated, but coconuts, particularly in the early years, require quite a lot of water. And irrigated casuarinas, another popular cash crop further north, are also a thirsty crop.

What about the future of farming in this area? They are not particularly optimistic. “When the child has still not learned to walk we already put him in school,” says Satyabalan, “and after getting educated they will not turn to farming. Also, there is no scheme that helps young people to become farmers.” In fact, they feel the government has given far too little support to farmers and has “ruined” farming over the past five years.

As one of them puts it, “I think most of our young people will sell their land in the future.”

So why are they still farming? They shrug. “We don’t know anything else.”