Dwarika turned to agriculture after the income from his ancestral snake charmer profession started dwindling. He got good returns from his first attempt at settled farming, thanks to the fertile silt excavated from an ancient taalab/tank.
2022Dwarika was a nomadic snake charmer like his ancestors. He learnt the craft from his father, who used to catch poisonous snakes from the forest, and entertain the village communities living in nearby areas in return for food or money. It was the only source of livelihood known to Dwarika having grownup around snakes.
In 1990, Dwarika’s family came to Hata village for the purpose of attending the annual meet of snake charmers held in Chitrakoot at Deepavali.
Post the event, the family of Dwarika settled in Jata village of Chitrakoot district. In 1993, the local government transferred the ownership of 5 bigah (1.25 hectares) land in the name of Dwarika’s father, Mulhnath. But, as the land was fallow, it lay uncultivated. Also, due to lack of agriculture knowhow, Dwarika continued his father’s profession by catching snakes in the nearby forests and entertaining community members of nearby villages, as a snake charmer.
Due to the strict enactment of wildlife protection laws, and increased awareness among people about wildlife conservation, the lure of the snake charmers is becoming a thing of the past. This has led to dwindling incomes for people like Dwarika.
In 2016-17, a BIWAL partner initiated work in Hata village on a education programme, which sponsored education of talented and resource-poor children. Dwarika’s daugther Karena, was also shortlisted for sponsorship under the programme. This encouraging support given to his daughter built Dwarika’s trust in the organization.
He started attending the meetings held by the organization in the village, which related to village-issues such as lack of irrigation, agriculture, etc. In one of the meetings he shared his inability to cultivate the land due to shallow, rocky soil in the land alloted.
In 2019, the BIWAL partner launched the work of desilting Khamboli taalab, a big ancient water harvesting structure near the village. A Tank Management Committee (TMC) was formed having membership of all interested farmers of the village, and represented by 15 odd members, selected for making decisions on behalf of the community. An important task of the tank management committee is the transportation of the excavated silt from the tank bed to fields of farmers.
Interested farmers submit their names for silt deposition to the TMC. The cost of silt transportation is borne by the farmers themselves. Dwarika elicited interest in silt deposition and arranged for transportation of 30 trolley of silt on his entire land. The silt excavated from taalab beds is known to have high amount of macro nutrients and carbon that leads to improved soil health.
Dwarika witnessed firsthand the effect of silt on crop production. He cultivated mustard and had a bumper harvest of 7 quintal from his meagre landholding. He sold the mustard at the rate of Rs. 5000 per quintal thus realizing an income of Rs. 35,000 for the first time that he practiced agriculture.
This income provided his family with food security for an entire year, as he purchased wheat, rice and dal from the income realized.
He now wants to practice agriculture as a livelihood. He actively participates in the meetings held by the organization and is eager to learn best practices of agriculture that reduce cost and boost yield.
Although, he currently does not have a source of irrigation and practices only rainfed Kharif cultivation on his land, he is preparing a small kitchen garden on his homestead land for household consumption.
Since the past two years, he has also started working as a farm labourer on the field of others during rabi season which supplements his income and provides with an avenue to learn about agriculture.
