Green shoots in Rajasthan

A visit last week to a cluster of villages in the Sikar and Alwar districts of Rajasthan, where over 50 check dams have been constructed in the last few years to dramatically alter the lives and livelihoods of Rajasthan’s farmers, was an education, an entertainment and a positive account of Indian agriculture… all rolled into one. Barely 10 years ago, these villages, within 80-90 km of Jaipur, were defined by parched land and farming totally dependant on the vagaries of the monsoon, allowing only one crop of bajra and some other millets.

This is also the region where Magsaysay Award-winner Rajendra Singh ushered in a water harvesting revolution through check dams. Govardhan, 65, had worked with him for 16 years before teaming up with the PHD Rural Development Foundation and Rotary India to build check dams to prevent rainwater run-off and dramatically improve water tables in these villages.

Land transformed

Govardhan’s 60

bighas of land (20 bighas make an acre) are collectively owned by him and his five brothers. While the soft-spoken Govardhan talks about farmers now harvesting three crops a year, including wheat and one cash crop, his flashy nephew Banwari, 33, fills me in on farmers’ changing lifestyles, and their children in better schools, before rounding off the discussion with a mouth-watering account of his fondness for food.

Govardhan recalls that 10 years ago when he came from Alwar to Guwaravyas, an interior village about 65 km from Jaipur, where he has now built a comfortable house with toilets, “the water situation was terrible. At 800 feet, they could find just enough water for drinking. Things were so bad that the men were migrating to Delhi, Bombay to work as porters, tile-layers, etc”.

But today, with seven check dams built around his and surrounding villages, the harvested water has filled up their wells and even though the monsoon has failed this year, there is enough water in the wells and in two of the bigger dams to see them comfortably through two years of good farming.

“Farmers are now selling bhindi (okra) worth ₹50,000 and tinda (a type of gourd) worth ₹1 lakh. Migration has been reversed and men have returned from the cities to work on their own land,” says Govardhan. “Forget human beings; we are greedy anyway. Today there is copious water for animals and birds and plants and trees too, as you can see from the greenery around,” he adds.

“ Bhindi was never seen in this part of Rajasthan; we now grow tomatoes, green chillies and other vegetables and will plant sugarcane in four bigha this year,” beams Banwari. He was one of the first this year to harvest his bhindi crop and sold a part of it at ₹58 a kg. Later, as more farmers harvested their okra crop, the price fell to ₹8 a kg. “But I had made my money,” he grins.

Enter tractors

The farmers gathered at Govardhan’s home where we were treated to a delicious lunch of hot makki ki roti with lots of ghee, methi and potato sabzi , kadhi , pooris , and lassi, have all built pucca homes with toilets “which were earlier unheard of in our villages”. Some of the farmers have built not one but three homes. Malliram, 60, is one such. All his five sons who had migrated to the cities over the last 10 years have returned, and last year he bought a tractor for ₹5 lakh. A man of few words, he sums up his status in one sentence: “ Khoob pani, khoob anaj, khoob paisa (We have lots of water, lots of foodgrain and lots of money).”

But Banwari loves to talk. As he drives with me through some of the villages, he points to the kikar trees that grow wild on uncultivable land. Kikar grows within 8 to 10 years, and each tree can fetch up to ₹15,000 for its wood used for both furniture and cremation. “With 10 kikar trees, you can comfortably rear 10 goats and 2 camels on the fodder it provides.”

He then points to aloe vera which grows wild in this region. “We use it for fencing and also for our food, as it has several medicinal properties. My father has joint pain and we give aloe vera juice to him, and also make our wheat atta (dough) with it. So our rotis or baati (a Rajasthan staple roll made of wheat flour) have aloe vera juice. Do you know pimples disappear if you rub a piece of it on your face?” Banwari then goes on to explain how all the facial creams sold overseas have aloe vera and ointments sold by Baba Ramdev contain “both tulasi and aloe vera.”

No nasha, just food

In another village, he points to fields growing tobacco which “sells at ₹100 a kg now as in big hotels they offer sheesha/hukkah. So the price of tobacco, which was earlier ₹30-40 a kg has shot up. Hamesha bekar cheez ki value jyada hoti hai (Useless things are always more expensive).”

As he waxes eloquent on how the sale of sharab (liquor) is propping up the Indian economy, and the economics of applying for sharab ke thekey (liquor shops) I ask him what his favourite poison is.

“I don’t believe in nasha (intoxication) of any kind. I don’t even drink tea; I drink milk and lassi and must have mithai (sweets) after every meal. Even in hot makki ki roti , ghee chopad ke (smeared with ghee), I mix powdered jaggery and consume it. And for morning kaleva (breakfast) we make makki ki rabri and eat it with milk or dahi . If you eat all this you will not get any disease and not age fast either.”

But then you have to burn it all, the way he and other farmers do in their fields. “Yes, today there is good money in farming, but we have to put in hard labour. We can get such profits only because our entire families work in the fields during sowing, harvesting,” says he young man.

So how far has he studied? “Oh, I have a double MA in history and political science from Rajasthan University. After building check dams I’ve got a diploma in water conservation from IGNOU. Sochta hoon ke ab social work mein PhD kar loon (I’m thinking of a PhD in social work),” he adds, casually.