Villagers and farmers are becoming aware about groundwater exploitation due to the Atal Ground Water Scheme, which was started in the state five years ago with the help of Barmer : World Bank and Central Government. More than 30 thousand farmers have taken steps towards saving water by changing the method of irrigation in farming.
These farmers are farming in more than 75 thousand hectares. Earlier they were providing water to the crops by making drains directly in the fields, now under the scheme they have adopted drip and sprinkler method. An area of about 25 thousand hectares will be developed in the next three months. VN Bhave, Nodal Officer of Atal Groundwater Scheme, said that Atal Groundwater Scheme is running in 17 districts of the state. The decline in ground water level has reduced in eight blocks. These include Ajmer Rural, Pisangan, Ramgarh, Atru Baran, Sangod, Khanpur and Rajsamand etc.
Water level monitoring is being done in 50 wells here. In this, water level has increased in 25 percent of the wells. Also, more than 1.5 lakh water conservation works including 253 farm ponds, 3393 diggi, 221 recharge softs were done. Of these alone, drip irrigation has started in more than 32 thousand farmers. Farmers here have shown interest in cultivating low water crops like jowar, millet and mustard instead of cotton and paddy. The state’s share in this Rs 6000 crore scheme is more than Rs 1000 crore. Through this, data on groundwater level, quality and future challenges is being made available to the farmers.
