June 29th 2016
Borisinh farmers had a satisfactory summer as compare to last year because of some extra income from small scale dairy business. This summer was overall harsh for the Yavatmal district with major water issues and consistent rise in temperatures. Most of the farmers who received buffaloes from SoCCs credits 4-5 months back reportedly had decrease in the milk yield.
Like other farmers, Gajanan Umate was bit upset to report his buffalo milk production dropped to 2-3 liters this month from 6-8 liters in March. One another farmer when asked was quick to suggest that it would have been nice if he had one more buffalo specially in the summer months when there was less grass to feed for buffaloes in dry season. Mahadev Hagone mentioned that due to large amount of money spent in fodder and monthly installments (against the loan taken to buy buffalo) he was not able to save at all specially in this dry season.
On a positive note monsoon seems to arrive on time this year and most of these SoCCs beneficiaries were busy in harvesting crops and other normal monsoon farming activities. As per their experience and basic biological facts most farmers suggested that the buffalo will start giving more milk towards end of monsoon and it’s a normal cycle.
With regards to Borisinh Phase II status for building check dams to conserve water for agriculture, “Save Indian Farmers” is still waiting from our on-ground India partners to start the actual work where along with our SoCCs farmers, few other people from neighboring villages are expected to be involved as well. Myself as a SIF member am bit worried about the execution of Phase II and am engaged to push on the logistics to resolve the issues as soon as possible. Our local partners must understand the importance of executing the project in a timely manner before the Monsoon is over and it’s too late to conserve the water for next few months.
In-spite of few hardships, total of 11 Borisinh women (6 are participants of our SoCCs program – Mrs Keskar, Mrs Waikale, Mrs Gawande, Mrs Chopade, Mrs. Umate and Mrs Fupre) approached our local partner NGO Deendayal Trust with a special request which was honored immediately. They have leased 5-acres of land together and needed help from local NGO to buy cotton seeds. These 5 acres are tilled and taken care of by this group. It is a matter of pride for all of us and “Save Indian Farmers” stand by these women as they venture farming on their own.
