It’s rags to riches story for these villagers

Jambida(Jamnagar): Amba Bharwad of Jambida village, having a population of around 450, could not even think of owning land till 1995. He barely earned Rs 40,000 a year by grazing cattle. Cut to 2008: He is one of the richest farmers in the village taking home Rs 5 lakh a year by h a r ve s t i n g three crops a year on his own 15-acre land. His two sons are studying in good schools in Rajkot and Junagadh. Water harvesting with 30 small and medium checkdams constructed after 1995 in and around Jambida has helped script many rags to riches stories like Bharwad’s. Such has been its turnaround, that Jambida village in Dhrol taluka has become a study model for students of Masters in Social Work (MSW) of Gujarat Vidyapith. “We worked very hard but, we didn’t have water for irrigation. In fact, we didn’t even have drinking water 12 years ago. But now, we don’t have to worry much even in summers,” said Bharwad. The efforts for water harvesting were initiated by Arjunsinh Jadeja — an employee of Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) in Rajkot — and his team about 13 years ago in this village. Jadeja, 45, is a native of Jambida. Once a stony expanse of land, one can now fetch water at just 20 ft depth, making Jambida a living example of how effective implementation of watershed programmes can bring prosperity to all community members living in the village irrespective of caste and community. Moreover, the cotton produce here was 60,000 kg a year. Today, one farmer alone produces 52,000 kg a year. In fact, Jambida is an oasis in this arid area of Dhrol taluka where nearby villages are still struggling for drinking water. “We made it a point to give equal priority to everyone while implementing watershed programmes so that the fruits of prosperity reached one and all,’’ Arjunsinh said. Interestingly, Jambida has around 500 tribals living on various farms and doing farming on a lease basis. “This could not have happened without water harvesting in our village,” adds Arjunsinh added. Ranjitsinh Jadeja, a farmer, says, “Our income increased 100 times after checkdams were constructed.” Now that Jambida’s farmers are making a good living after the water harvesting programme, they have also started acquiring agriculture land in nearby villages. “Jambida farmers have bought around 500 bighas (200 acres) of land since the programme,’’ says Ajitsinh Jadeja, living in Hadmatiya village adjacent to Jambida.