One,Two, Three and now Eight........LI schemes renewed

This is not a simple arithmetic but this is a count of Naandi's effort to empower the local community and also to bring the sense of ownership to the lift irrigation(LI) project which was otherwise defunct.

Just a small flashback,it was 1997- the villain in the white screen was water. The irrigation system that was constructed to bring water into the farmer's field became defunct. The condition of Appu Raattaiah,an old farmer of Lachicigudem village became pathetic. Every year the yield in his field started dwindling from eight bags of maize in 1995 to four bags in 2003. Appu became debt ridden and even planned to migrate for some alternative jobs in the nearby towns which will fetch him a meager amount.

The days of hunger and the deplorable picture of the farmers has been coloured through an initiative of the revival of defunct LI schemes.Here comes 2007, and Naandi has more to celebrate when a farmer with a same story as Appu,named Chimpiraiah displayed his State bank of India passbook and said-' I'm the first person in my family to be without a single debt today,i have paid them all off,and I 've even begun to save.'

Naandi is behind this pride today and there are lot more stories in this area that speaks about the benefits they received from the revival of the defunct pumps.

Naandi, which is the only NGO in Andhra Pradesh to revive the defunct LI schemes since 2003,has now been recently alloted 87 additional LI schemes including two new districts namely, Prakasham and Guntur in addition to the previous six schemes.

The Executive Engineers of Andhra Pradesh State Irrigation Development Corporation (APSIDC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) with Naandi foundation in March 2008 for the second phase of the LI project.

The new cropping patterns for optimum utilisation of water,assisting farmers to switch to 2-3 crop cycles per year are the greatest USP's for Naandi's success in the LI project . A full strategic environment friendly project which have reduced the distressed migration rate half in 2007 and also the net agricultural income per household increased by 85.3 percent deserves an applause.

Financial stability of the farmers,ownership building,water management has now become synonymous with the Lift irrigation projects.