Plummeting groundwater levels and adverse rainfall patterns forced farmers in Buchinelli village in Telangana to abandon agriculture but a Corporate Social Responsibility initiative implemented by Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. adopting a climate-smart approach equipped farmers to return to farming. So far, more than 400 households in the watershed have benefited from increased profits and crop productivity. As part of the ongoing project work, 20 smallholder farmers were recently oriented on Best Agronomic Practices taking due precautions in the midst of the COVID 19 pandemic for the current cropping season.

1. NewsletterHappenings
In-house version 14 August 2020, No.1867
Plummeting groundwater levels and adverse rainfall
patterns forced farmers in Buchinelli village in
Telangana to abandon agriculture but a Corporate Social
Responsibility initiative implemented by Mahindra &
Mahindra Ltd. adopting a climate-smart approach
equipped farmers to return to farming. So far, more than
400 households in the watershed have benefited from
increased profits and crop productivity. As part of the
ongoing project work, 20 smallholder farmers were
recently oriented on Best Agronomic Practices taking due
precautions in the midst of the COVID 19 pandemic for
the current cropping season.
Before the watershed program, declining groundwater
levels (20cm/year) and an adverse rainfall pattern (33%
of the annual rainfall is from 4-5 high rainfall events of
>30 mm) forced farmers to migrate to Hyderabad, the
nearest city, in search of livelihoods. The collaborative
watershed initiative started in 2017 and a pool of
climate-smart agricultural technologies developed by
ICRISAT equipped farmers to take up farming, grow
improved crop varieties, save water, restore soil heath
and sustain farming. The project impact speaks for itself.
Increased groundwater availability by 30-40%
Fifty water-harvesting structures (check dams, gully
plugs, sunken pits, mini pits, farm ponds, recharge units,
etc.) were constructed. The interventions created a
storage capacity of 25,000 cubic meters and more than
90,000 cubic meter of rainwater was harvested each
Impact story
Multinational company nurtures a Climate-Smart Village,
facilitates return of migrant farmers
Farmers attend a Field Day at Buchinelli village in Telangana.
Photo: ICRISAT
Check dam in the village.
Photo: ICRISAT
Storage capacity created and rainwater harvested in the
watershed from 2017-20.
8280
26496
8280
26496
8280
223569550
30560
9550
25785
8280
22356
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
70000
80000
2017-18
Storage
Capacity
2017-18
Rainwater
harvested
2018-19
Cummulative
Storage
Capacity
2018-19
Cummulative
Rainwater
harvested
2019-20
Cummulative
Storage
Capacity
2019-20
Cummulative
Rainwater
harvested
Volume(m3)
Cummulative Storage Capacity Vs Rainwater harvested
This work contributes
to UN Sustainable
Development Goals
year, enhancing groundwater availability in surrounding
farms (100-120) in the watershed.
Crop yields increase by 10-15 % through land