Wells Fargo helps 2,600 farmers in Telangana

Hyderabad: About 2,600 farmers across 19 villages in Kangti Mandal of Sangareddy district in Telangana are reaping the benefits of programme initiated by Wells Fargo in collaboration with Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR).

Farmers like Pandya Nayak of Sardharthanda village in northwestern Telangana has gone from growing a single crop of jowar to growing two crops a year on a holding of four acres. Similarly, Nagkonda of Chowkanpally village has managed to bring one acre of fallow land under cultivation in the past year.

All of this happened over a period of 12 months after Wells Fargo and WOTR collaborated on a programme to improve farmer livelihoods through sustainable agricultural practices in Kangti Mandal, a press release said.

The programme introduced watershed management, natural waste decomposition, reduction in use of chemical fertilizers, and farm equipment to mechanize farming operations, among other things.

The project covers 19 villages in Kangti Mandal with a population of over 15,000. About 57 per cent of land in Kangti Mandal is classified as agricultural, but only 2.8 per cent is irrigated. After extensive study of local conditions, the programme identified that unsustainable agricultural practices, poor soil management, resource-intensive cultivation and inefficient use of available water resources were mostly responsible for the agricultural issues in the region.

As part of the project, 883 hectares were treated over six months and over 450 thousand cubic meters (TCM) of water harvesting potential was created through 245 new structures — including earthen bunds, dugout ponds and farm ponds, trench cum bunds (TCB) and farm bunds.