Farmers seek help to overturn impacts of tube-well ‘revolution’ | Jaipur News

While almost the entire rural belt of Bikaner district is dependent on farming based on irrigation through tube-wells, the continuous decline in underground water levels as a result has heightened farmers’ worries. As the assembly polls approach, they have raised demands for canal water for irrigation and drinking in the villages to reverse the trend and take peanut production to new heights.
Water levels in most areas earlier ranged between 400 to 500 feet. The tube-well “revolution” that started some 20 years ago has led water levels deeper, and now it is between 1,000 to 1,200 feet at many places. Underground water from such low levels has high TDS and an electrical conductivity of about 3, which makes it not only harmful to drink but also unfit for groundnut, the area’s main crop, they said.
“We want political parties to focus on the falling groundwater levels. If the government provides us canal water for irrigation and drinking in the villages, Bikaner’s farmers can take the district to the national stage in peanut production just like its businessmen have earned accolades for Bhujia Papad. Bikaner district’s soil and the area’s climate are suitable for groundnut production,” said Bhikhamchand Saraswat, a farmer in Lalamdesar Chhota village in Shri Dungargarh.
Agriculture is the main activity in rural Bikaner. The mushrooming of tube-wells, coupled with various subsidies, rebates in electricity tariff, fertilisers and pesticides, and availability of Kisan Credit Cards, has made agriculture easier over the years. Farmers here are progressive and use machines for irrigation and other agriculture purposes.
Mula Ram, a 23-year-old farmer, said he had 20 bighas of land that is irrigated by a tube-well. “Before I harvested my groundnut crop, I was expecting 11 quintals per bigha but got around 8 quintals per bigha this season. Still I am happy,” he said.