Thottiyapatty watershed shows signs of development of marginal and women farmers.

Thottiyapatty check dam receives water from its catchment area due to rains

Thottiyapatty watershed shows signs of development of marginal and women farmers. The watershed area, the target area of SG/OFI Project received heavy rain on Sunday evening, bringing temporary relief to the people suffering from sweltering heat. The rain lasted for about an hour. The check dams have four feet water depth with this rain. The check dam, soil and water conservation activities are undertaken intensively from Mondy onwards so that the regular monsoon will hold tank full of water as a result of watershed project implemented by SG/OFI/SEVAI. The key development activities of SG/OFI Project is  to improve the productive potential of Thottiyapatty and Dasilnaickar  watersheds and their associated natural resource base, and strengthen community for natural resource management such as water and soil conservation for food production and development of agriculture and cattle care and the associated activities.

Dasilnaikanoor watershed receives rain water

An associated activity is to strengthen the capacity of Women Self Help group and marginal farmers Activities in the project villages for participatory involvement in planning, implementation, social and environmental management and maintenance. SEVAI with the support of SG/OFI operates in a more socially inclusive manner, with in the frame work of a convergent watershed development Project of integrated water and soil conservation. This is being achieved through having the community groups implement the project, the project’s collaborative approach and capacity building initiatives. The rain on Sunday on 12^th April 2015 gives relief to the people and hope for promoting water and soil conservation shortly so that they will produce high yield of food

watershed catchment of rainfall

grains,pulses,tubers,vegetables etc during 2015-06 and the villagers are thankful to SG/OFI for timely support for giving input in the form of well deepening,check dam construction, gully plugging construction, strengthening women SHGs and tree nursery raising and tree planting, drip irrigation promotion, watershed practice training  and promoting organic farming in the respective village clusters of Thottiyapatty and Dasilnaicknanoor. SEVAI, The Project Implementing Agency (PIA) provides necessary technical guidance to the villagers for preparation of development of the watershed through Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) exercise,

Stream drinking water for cattle

undertake community organisation and training for the village communities, supervise watershed development activities, inspect and authenticate project accounts. Watershed Development Projects implemented by SEVAI with the support of SG/OFI has initially resulted in creation replicable models of participatory watershed development has helped in augmentation of natural resources and improvement in livelihood of watershed communities with initial indicators of Rise in ground water level, overcoming Drinking water scarcity in villages, improvement of Local employment generation, reducing off season migration, Increase in agricultural productivity and production, Dairy activity has received a fillip, Women empowerment and reduction in drudgery; large number of women SHGs formed and credit linked. -Govin