THE REWARD

‘We’ll generate power worth Rs 7 cr daily once we reach the mark’

Dahyabhai Parsottambhai Baria, 55-year-old farmer of Gomda village in Gujarat’s tribal dominated Narmada district, had never grown wheat in his life. He could take only one crop a year as agriculture depended solely on rainfall. He and his neighbours had no work during the parched summers and every second person in the village was forced to migrate, along with family, to the nearby towns of Vadodara and Surat to work as construction labourers.

Then, the canals came alive with the Narmada waters and changed Baria’s life. For the past two years, he and other farmers of Gomda have been reaping bumper harvests of wheat, with a yield of over three quintals per bigho. They have also started harveswting two crops—one kharif, another rabi.

Ambalal Jethabhai Baria is another Gomda farmer who could never manage more than four quintals of cotton per bigho, two quintals of makai (corn) or one to three quintals of jowar/bajra. Last year, he got a yield of six quintals of makai, eight quintals of cotton and eight quintals of jowar and bajra per bigho. ’’ I am not only able to feed my family now but have a surplus to sell in the market,’’ said Ambalal.

The network of canals from the Sardar Sarovar dam has changed lives for thousands. In Gomda alone, 13,000 villagers have benefitted from increased agricultural production and the availability of green fodder. With more than 200 buffaloes in the village, over 160 litres of milk was daily supplied by the Gomda Milk Cooperative Society to the Baroda Dairy. Secretary Balubhai Shankarbhai Baria says the monthly turnover of the society has touched Rs 90,000. Two years ago, the daily supply from the village was around 100 litres per day.

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