Participatory workshops with farmers in Berambadi Watershed

Atcha participatory workshops were organized in July 2018 in the villages of Gopalpura and Puttanapura, in the Berambadi watershed.

Workshops were organized by researchers and students from French Institute of Pondicherry (Pr F. Landy, Dr Venkat G.) and CEFIRSE/IISc Bangalore (Dr L. Ruiz, Deepti U., Avinash R.) with the great contribution from the two Master students (Julie Jacquet, Roma Hooge and their facilitator Shantha Murthy) whose project included living for several months in Gopalpura.

These two villages have similar sociology, but differ in terms of water resource availability. While Gopalpura still has good (yet declining) groundwater reserve, Puttanapura witnessed dramatic decline in water levels, more than 90% of the well have dried up and many farmers had to turn back to rainfed agriculture.

Workshops included a presentation of the main objectives and results of the ATCHA project, including a diagnostic of the reason for groundwater depletion, open discussions and “serious games” with groups of farmers. Attendance was good (about 60 farmers in each village) and feedback very positive. The material gathered (voice record of the discussion, games) will be used as input for the stakeholder workshop to be held in Bangalore in November 2018.

Photo : Deepti U., PhD student at IISc, presenting ATCHA outcomes to farmers in the premises of Puttanapura primary school (Credit L. Ruiz)