Farmer Ganesh Mahato, 37, a resident of Lower Dungri village in Jharia, couldn’t complete his graduation because of financial constraints and didn’t want his two kids to meet the same fate.

Today, Ganesh’s son is doing diploma in mining engineering while his daughter is pursuing MCom and the proud father can’t thank the Jharia unit of Tata Steel Rural Development Society (TSRDS) enough for making this happen.

“My son Subham is pursuing diploma in mining engineering from a private institute in Topchanchi. My daughter Kanchan is doing her Masters in commerce from SSLNT Women’s College. I am hugely indebted to TSRDS’s Jharia division for helping me adopt a new farming technique and increase my income.” Ganesh said.

In 2018, Ganesh had received multiple rounds of training from TSRDS’s Jharia division to migrate from the traditional farming techniques to drip irrigation. It led to a four-fold increase in his income and helped him fund his children’s education.

Ganesh said he was currently earning Rs 25,000 per month. “I am growing all kinds of vegetables, including pointed gourd, cauliflower, tomato, sweet gourd, pumpkin, radish, carrot, ladies finger and cabbage besides water melon and sunflower on five acres of land,” Ganesh said.

He said the adoption of the new technique helped him curtail expenses on organic compost and insecticides.

“A large number of farmers in my village are planning to adopt the new technique after taking inspiration from my success. I help them out with all the information,” Ganesh added.

He said adopting drip irrigation was a leap of faith for him and it changed his life for the better. “I am a happy and proud farmer today,” he said.

In the drip irrigation technique, water is distributed across the field through a network of valves, pipes, tubes and emitters.

Depending on how well-designed, installed, maintained, and operated it is, a drip irrigation system can be more efficient than surface or sprinkler irrigation.

Compared with traditional techniques of irrigation, drip irrigation saves more than 70 per cent of water.

This increases the water use efficiency to 95 per cent. In traditional irrigation system, more than 50 per cent of the water is not utilised efficiently resulting in poor crop yield.