Ayyappa Masagi: A Person Who Saves Rainwater For Crops

Ayyappa's main goal is to improve farmers' use of water

Moonsoon is about to hit the region of India. To save and reuse the rainwater, Karnataka farmer, Ayyappa Masagi, says that with good rainwater usage farmers can have more control of the success of their crops - even in areas that receive low rainfall. The Karnataka agriculturalist has been working out ways to best use rainfall - and is keen to share what he has learnt over the decades.

While talking about his story, Masagi said His journey has been a long one that began when he learnt the value of water was just a child. Ayyappa remembers how his mother's struggles with drinking water made him interested in water. “Reason is my mother," he said.

After receiving a diploma, the farmer worked in Larsen and Toubro for 23 years - before buying 6 acres of land to follow his dream of farming. But he ran into difficulties after a few years.

Adding more, he added, “For 3 years, very good water. Good crop. Then in 2002, 3 years consecutive drought. All the 3000 Areca nut plants fell. It became barren,” he said. “And I left my job also in 2002. My wife called me useless fellow.”

Ayyappa quit his job with its monthly salary of Rs 50000 to gain experience with an NGO for just Rs 5000 a month - to see if he could gain more knowledge of crops and water. After returning to Bengaluru, an Oxfam fellowship helped him in the learning process. And he bought 3 acres of land in the Tumakuru district. He experimented with rainwater - and through trial and error found what worked and what didn't.

He tried different sizes of pits to plant coconuts before concluding that 4 feet by 4 feet worked the best. He blocks rainwater with earth in compartments and trenches, uses soak pits and borewell recharging methods so that -as he puts it - the running rainwater slows to a walk, then stops and goes to sleep where he wants it to.

The farmer said, “This is a drought-prone area. When I purchased this land, people were asking - why are you coming here? No rain, water. Now the same village people are saying - this is Vaikunta!”  All the manure for the farm is generated from the farm itself.

“All livestock eat my agricultural waste. They will Give droppings and urine. Droppings will go to compost. All urine to live liquid manure. We use cow dung, urine, eggs, and groundnut cakes for 10,15 days. Then filter it this is the only manure I am using,” he said.

While talking about his current work status, Ayyappa works as a consultant for water planning for industries and homes - but his main goal is to improve farmers' water use. He conducts training programmes and spreads the word in whichever way he can.

“Through social media, through books, through print media. Then I have a training centre. I want to train more and more water warriors and educated farmers. Every month I am conducting 3 to 4 programmes,” he said.