BENGALURU: The journey took longer than expected and the scorching heat didn’t help much. As we crossed from Karnataka to Andhra, the landscape turned harsher. The heat, the dust, the road riddled with thorny acacias made us long for some cool breeze. The memory of this drive a few years ago is still fresh in my mind. We were out to visit a man we met at this little eatery run by women on the Hyderabad highway. All it took was a short drive to one of his farms for us to realise that this was no ordinary man.
It was tough to imagine that this man Ayyappa Masagi hailing from a famine-stricken district of Karnataka would become instrumental in water literacy. What he had done with a dry piece of land was nothing short of a miracle. This farm in a nondescript village near Lepakshi, AP, used to be an unforgiving, rocky terrain peppered with stubborn, withered palm trees. The owner who sold this land to Ayyappa had completely given up on it.
It had been a year since and the same land was teeming with greenery, with saplings of various trees and a variety of crops, including ragi, millet, beans, tomatoes, onions, green chillies and several veggies growing in abundance. The farm did not depend on external water sources for its agricultural needs any more. It had artificial ponds, borewells and umpteen numbers of trenches dug along the rocky land, all actively conserving and recharging ground water. It was a pleasure to see the earth blooming due to human efforts.
Since then, I have come across stories of several farmers who successfully adopted water recharging methods and many who have taken up sustainable methods of farming. While it has been predicted that the world may face a severe water crisis in about a decade, these people have been at work, diligently. With agriculture becoming riskier every day and more and more youngsters choosing to move away to cities looking for greener pastures, it needs a revival — not just as a means of living but as an industry. I keep watching videos of huge farms in the west managed by a handful of people who supply the produce that is in demand, rather than sticking to traditional methods.
During the first two waves of the pandemic, I would read about numerous people who returned to their native places taking up viable farming and horticulture. Being out in the world, they knew they had to think like entrepreneurs. They not only grew things, but also sold them online. I remember buying lentils, jute bags, healthy drink mixes, dried local fruits, jams, lehyas from farmers across Karnataka during the pandemic.
Such people are our hope in the present world riddled with pessimism and animosity. “All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was,” says author Toni Morrison. It is just that simple. We only need to see it.