CSR

IOCL CSR Intervention in water saving Technologies in Paddy Crop Proved successful for Tamilnandu Farmers

IOCL CSR Intervention in water saving Technologies in Paddy Crop Proved successful for Tamilnandu Farmers

 

'Oil major, Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Southern Region Pipelines partnered with Tamilnadu Agriculture University, Coimbatore in bringing SRI, AWDI & DSR methods in paddy cultivation to reduce water usage & improve rice productivity'

CSR Intervention:

It is a widely known fact that, rice is a water intensive crop. 70% of water consumption in India is used for rice production. Generally rice is grown using water from nearby tanks / reservoirs / streams or by utilizing ground water. During summers all resources generally goes dry in Tamilnadu, the dependence on ground water is very high for farming. But as the ground water resources are also reducing day by day, the farmers are undergoing water stress, due to which they are unable grow crops. India is agrarian society and large number of farmers are dependent on 2-3 crops of rice per year for their livelihood.  Hence to sustain rice production despite climatic changes there are proven methods which are farmer centric.
 
In Tamilnadu, the water crisis is severe as Tamilnadu has 7% of India’s population & 2% of water availability. This Water stress is affecting the rice productivity & farmers income added to this repeated monsoon failures in TN farmers are in anguish. Small & marginalized famers are the worst hit.
 
In order to reach out to this problem, IndianOil, Chennai in partnership with Tamilnadu Agriculture University, Coimbatore bringing water saving technologies to the farmers for reduction in water usage and increasing the rice yield through CSR intervention.
 
The conventional cropping method & pattern of paddy cultivation is water intensive and less productive (relatively), labour intensive and the following technologies developed by TNAU  reduction in Water Use Efficiency (WUE) & increase productivity of rice cultivation.
 
  • SRI method      – System of Rice Intensification
  • AWDI Method – Alternate Wetting & Drying Irrigation
  • DSR Method    - Direct Seeded Rice
 
All the above methods would reduce water consumption and aid in either enhancing or sustaining rice production. And as entire India is facing water crisis year on year, there is an urgent need to scale up these technologies across India and in this context CSR can be treated as one of the vehicle to disseminate this knowledge to the poor farmers so that their lives can be changed.
In October 2018, IOCL & TNAU entered into a formal MoU for disseminating these technologies to more than 400 farmers directly and provide capacity building to more than 3000 famers for adopting these technologies in a span of 3 years at a total project cost if Rs. 54 Lakh.
 
Location: 
 
Location chosen for this project is 50 villages, along oil pipeline RoW in Villupuram District, Tamilnadu. Villupuram is among most backward districts of TN and Villupuram District is among the top rice producing districts.
 
Impact:
 
During 2018-19, 51 Demonstrations were conducted & famers adopted all types of methods 
 
  • 25 Farmers adopted - SRI Method  
  • 25 farmers adopted AWDI Method   
  • 1 farmer adopted DSR Method 
All the farmers are reaping the benefits of these interventions.  All beneficiary farmers’ details along with their farm GPS coordinates are being maintained and monitored
 
FARMERS EXPERIENCES:
 
A small farmer, K. Manivannan, from Melperadikuppam village, Tindivanam taluk, Villupuram district, Tamilnadu seen happy with the healthy growth of the crop in his 3 acre land adopting System of Rice Intensification (SRI) method. There is a noticeable increase in grain yield compared to the conventional crop and the size of the plant is also is grown to be bigger than the conventional cropping method. The crop is awaiting to get harvested in 10 days’ time and Manivannan is absolutely confident his with eyes filled with gratitude that he would gain more bags of rice this time around due to this timely CSR intervention this summer despite water scarcity. He told that he would spread this knowledge to other farmers also so that they can also reap benefits of SRI method.
 
Shri. N. Kesavan, marginalised farmer in Kollar Village, Tindivanam taluk, Villupuram district has one acre land  during this summer rice has been planted in entire piece of land unlike previous years wherein 30 cents of land is only used for cropping due to water scarcity.  Now with the same water availability he was able to sow crop for the entire piece of land. This was possible because of IOCL’s CSR intervention where in farmer adopted AWDI method of irrigation (Alternate Wetting & Drying Irrigation) with the guidance and monitoring of Tamilnadu Agriculture University. 
 
Similarly hundreds of farmers have been trained in these water saving technologies to have great impact on water saving as well enhanced yield. Direct Seeded Rice method also been adopted by few farmers and drum seeders are provided to the farmers.
 
All these methods set to reduce water consumption by 30% and yield by 20%. CSR scheme includes providing capacity building of neighbouring farmers also so as to reap the benefits of these methods. 
 
UNIQUENESS OF THE CSR PROJECT: 
 
There is a tremendous scope for this CSR intervention  
 
  • This project is very futuristic as day by day the ground water levels are depleting 
  • These water saving technologies are resilient to climate changes and highly Sustainable 
  • This innovative CSR project greatly benefit small & marginalized farmers with increased yield   
  • These agricultural technologies  are farmer centric 
  • The scalability of this CSR project is very high across India 
  • An all-round impact on every aspect of life of the farmers
  • RoW village farmers are our direct Stake holders and PL passes through their lands.  
  • A considerable benefit on environment also due to less generation of GHG gases

 

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