How Farmers Reshaped a Region and Solved Drought

this is rajastan this is an arid land where brief Monsoon rains were washing the soil away but now they're harvesting extreme amounts of water throughout an entire region and are thriving their way through the long 9month dry season we have ample amount of groundwater to see us through three consecutive drought years here we get to see the war of a village over 45 years Monsoon after Monsoon for decades this water table's recharged here we are in rajastan visiting the village of Loria and the Waterman lakshman Singh lakshman Singh is the son of the former rulers of this area when he was just a young man he saw the plight of his village with no water even managing one year of drought was very difficult for us there was very few trees there was only cropping during the rainy season it was a hard [Music] life lman Singh rallied leapor and the entire region to bring about the abundance that we see today I traveled to Loria to meet with lakshman and his team because I had to find out how did this incredible project happen my name is Vishnu Sharma he's my brother and myself is jagir Singh we have spent the last couple days touring all around the village to see the incredible Waterworks tree planting abundant agriculture one thing you should be aware of is that we are here during the dry season they have not had significant rain since the end of August and here we are in the beginning of February so it's been over 5 months since there's been rain much of the work that I do uses examples from sloped land and I get a lot of questions of people saying what do we do in flatland situations here we actually have flatland design we have large scale Watershed restoration large scale groundwater recharge with a series of hydrologically interconnected Villages here in this flat [Music] terrain we're actually here at the neighboring Village Gago Village this is their water collection and this Pond that we're looking at right here when this overflows it actually connects through a Channel 4 km and goes all the way to the Village of Loria so these Villages here they have interconnected their water systems they spill one to the next so we see a landscape wide system of water management with the goal of Maximum percolation to build the water table storage for irrigation and also storage for wildlife and storage for live stock the average rainfall for this area is ranging from 350 to 400 MM of rain we dug this place up we work with about 100 people all residents of this Village and the neighboring Villages if we were to calculate the number of person days that were utilized in digging this place up it would tent amount to 10,000 person days they made a diverse Channel which collects rain runoff from a wide area the water flows into a series of ponds in the center of the village which fill up and then overflow from one to the next in Loria they developed a unique system for infiltrating storm water runoff in the flat terrain called the Chala system in the Chala system they excavated a series of pits and used that soil to build up BMS to make these compartments the compartments are flood by storm water runoff and the water's held back by the Bund and fills the compartment completely the water then seeps into the ground to recharge the aquifer once the water soaks in it leaves the soil surface moist in a pattern like we see here this causes grasses to grow in abundance and so this area is used for grazing animals each compartment overflows one to the next and finally the whole Chala system overflows into a larger water body [Music] prior to the interventions we did in terms of the choca system this drainage line would only take runoff during the monsoon you see water has been retained resulting from infiltration percolation effects of the choca system we're seeing water here how long ago did this waterfall as rain in response to your question water that you see today is not the heavy rainfall that got collected at the end of August this is stagnating water now here which is a result of our efforts of soil water conservation including the choca system that we have done in the last 20 years you see the two pumping sits they have been lifting water from this wond and irrigating their wheat Fields but the level doesn't seem to be going down despite the pumping that is taking place over the years the infiltration per ation effect that has taken place ensures already enough water has been stored underground and that will be lifted from the wells to help irrigate the crops we are very sure that we have ample amount of groundw to see us through for three consecutive drought years prior to that even managing one year of drought was very difficult for us this is D sagur before they dug up this water body the ground water had gone down to a depth of 60 to 70 odd feet from the ground level that was the depth to water over the years with recharge infiltration population rate improved the recharge in the wells the levels have come up and even if this year one was to go and measure in some of the open Wells you will notice that the water level is in the range of 5 to 10 ft from the ground level during the monsoon these open dug Wells are almost at the level where it's about to spill over from its parapet which means you can just bend a little from your waist you put your two hands there and lift the water and drink it that is the situation during the monsoon months he says good water plenty of water in our open world helps to Agriculture and increase in agriculture production productivity and when there is good agriculture definitely we Prosper as you step out from the immediate settlement in any direction we have a lot of Agriculture at this time of the Season we have three major crops right now the mustard the gram and also the wheat crop the agriculture today is enough to support the families and residents of this Village there is no shortage only a portion of their fields are irrigated with groundwater the rest are rainfed only but they've built Treeline buns separating the fields and these buns end up serving as water collection structures and cause the fields to be temporarily flooded during the monsoon rains soaking the soils and feeding the crops [Music] 40 years ago you could see some of the neighboring Villages because there were so less trees in our area now you cannot see the neighboring Villages most of these trees were planted in these last 40 years our efforts have yielded some change in the local weather conditions and the climate it is no longer that hot as it used to be some 40 years ago because now with the tree cover in our area it helps to bring down the temperature our village is one of the most Green Village in this whole area and you see the greenery is a result of the efforts that were put in by the village community the population of Loria is about 3,000 people and the area of the village is500 hectares so 5 years ago I came and I toured this Village and I have seen Visible Changes first off I've seen new houses popping up it's really a visible sign of the prosperity of this Village how could they not have increasing Prosperity when in a dry area like this they have stable and increasing water tables and they put in the infrastructure for large scale irrigation as we made some Headway and progress we started to work in neighboring Villages today in the immediate vicinity of Foria we are working in almost 60 Villages I feel a lot of gratitude it's just been really incredible to spend a couple days with lakshman Singh and tour the exceptional work of this Village People love and respect this man everywhere we go people greet him with such warmth and it was really a pleasure just to experience the love between lakshman and the people that served in the last 45 years hell you have to understand that the physical work of Loria is the product of nearly half a century of community social work this was not a top- down development process it was and still is a participatory process that has bonded the villagers deeply in the collective health of their Village and their region I'm just really thankful that I get the opportunity to help to tell the story of the transformation if you can do this here where can't you do this are you ready to transform deserts create Lush backyards and feed communities in my almost 30 years as a permaculture designer traveling the world I've put everything I learned into Oregon State University's online permaculture design course or PDC the PDC and PDC Pro are the ultimate ways to begin mastering permaculture Me and My Team guide you through over 20 assignments with more than 100 hours of top quality video lectures and resources all focused on developing your own property or project throughout the course you'll get personalized feedback from a dedicated instructor in a small group setting people are always asking me how can I be part of the solution this is your starting point check the link below for 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Channel: Andrew Millison

Views: 1,300,456

Keywords: permaculture, permaculture in rajasthan, laporiya village rajasthan, gvnml, gvnml laporiya, rainwater harvesting, waterman of india, andrew millison, greening the desert, india permaculture, sustainable agriculture, drought solution, regenerative farming, regenerative farming in the desert

Id: 79VUAFq2rbg

Length: 11min 34sec (694 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 13 2024