Kolkata: Members of various Self-Help-Groups (SHGs) across several villages in Pathar Pratima block of South 24-Parganas district are harvesting rainwater to cultivate crops on farmland where groundwater salinity is high due to the proximity of the sea.
This area lies within the Sunderbans delta region, where the Hooghly River meets the Bay of Bengal. Shefali Bera, a resident of Kishore Nagar village and a member of an SHG, is optimistic about profiting from her agricultural yield as cultivating crops with harvested rainwater is becoming the norm across various villages in the block.
Talking to a news agency in Kishore Nagar, Bera said a significant portion of 127.9 hectares of land has been affected by saline water.
“Now, under the guidance and support of a non-government organisation (NGO), the villagers are trying to convert their single crop land into multi-crop land by storing rainwater in newly dug up ponds,” she said.
Bera is among the 530 women of multiple SHGs in Pathar Pratima block who have come under the initiative of the global NGO Water for People, which is encouraging villagers to opt for rainwater harvesting.
“It is true that the salinity level in the groundwater is still abnormally high, but with the digging of new ponds and waterbodies, to store rainwater having no salinity and the desiltation of existing ponds, the saline water will wash away through adjacent channels and fresh water will accumulate in two years facilitating farming of several vegetable crops and even paddy and also pisciculture,” a representative of the NGO said.
Kabita Maity of Shibganj village in the block earned a profit of Rs 53,781 in 2023, Rs 65,797 in 2024 and Rs 8,350 in January this year.
Maity said earlier she used to earn something between Rs 5,000-7,000 in a year since many crops could not survive due to salinity. The NGO gave her Rs 1.55 lakh three years ago, and that affected the turnaround of her family’s fortune.
She grew different crops by using the rainwater harvesting method.
She pumped in fresh water from the pond for tilling the adjacent land and drove away saline traces.
Another farmer Subrata Bera, who has dug a pond for rainwater harvesting, said that he spent Rs 85,000 for digging it. He bore 20 per cent of the cost, while 80 per cent of the money was given by the NGO.