Meet Jamsu, the new Manjhi of south Gujarat

Surat: Where there is a will there is a way. This saying has been proven right by a tribal farmer from interior village in Valsad’s Dharampur taluka. He toiled hard for more than 15 days to irrigate his parched farmland in the village with water flowing from a tiny waterfall located 1,000 metre on top of the hillock.
Meet the second Dashrath Manjhi of Mankandban village in Dharampur, Jamsu Nagvali (40), who laid one kilometre long pipeline from waterfall located 1,000 metre on the hillock, to irrigate his mango orchard with drip irrigation.

Mankandban village is located in the interiors of Dharampur and surrounding by hillocks. Being a tribal farm labourer, Jamsu was given one acre of forest land for agriculture purpose last year by the Gujarat government. Last year, he had planted mango saplings, considering good rains would allow him to reap good benefits in two years. Though the rainfall was good last year in his village, he is worried about the monsoon this year amid reports of water scarcity.

A father of three, Jamsu discussed about the drip irrigation project with his wife Mangli. He (Jamsu) wanted to bring water from the natural stream flowing 1,000 metre above on the hillock. This waterfall flows year round, but the task of laying the pipeline was quite tough.

From his saved income, Jamsu spent Rs 8,000 to purchase the drip irrigation kit from the local vendor in Valsad and brought back home. Without any scientific knowledge on laying the pipeline, Jamsu took up the task of bringing water to his orchard.

He climbed up the hillock and laid the pipeline. He would work from 7 am to 7 pm every day and survived on boiled rice and water for 15 days. He fitted the transmission line at the waterfall and connected it with the main pipeline to the drip system. In order to protect his PVC pipes from heat and other damages, Jamsu buried them 45 centimetre beneath the ground, all along the rocky hillock down to his farm.

“Hunger makes your brain work four times faster. Same happened with me when I did firm desire to bring water from the stream to my orchard. I completed the drip system in my orchard in 15 days. I took guidance of assembling the network looking at the pictures shown in the drip kit,” says Jamsu.

Jamsu adds, “After the successful installation of drip system, other farmers in my village and nearby villages are visiting me to know more about it. I want all the farmers in my village to start using this system and there will be no scarcity of water to our farms.”

Former sarpanch of Mankandban Kanti Thorat said, “Jamsu has become a role model of many in the village with his firm will to achieve his goal. The waterfall is known as Sarvala and it flows year round. The water flows down from the hillock to the river passing from Dharampur.”