Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s new irrigation technique for his village looks impressive

The very talented actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui has come up with a very novel and useful technique to help his village farmers with irrigation. Siddiqui has spent major part of his life farming in his village of Budhana, UP, till his graduation, and he came across this startling idea. It all started with a visit to the Cannes Film Festival. At the film festival, the actor befriended a few Frenchmen who happened to own farms in Nice and invited the actor for a tour. That’s when he realised that almost every kind of crop in France was being irrigated using this cost-effective and water efficient technique called centre pivot irrigation.

Nawaz instantly struck upon the idea of implementing the same process in his village, and got a sample model fabricated and shipped to his village. This innovative method of irrigation consists of a transformer with wheels, and elevated pipes jutting out of the contraption with rotating nozzles fitted within a gap of a couple of feet from each other.

Here’s what Nawaz said to a leading daily, “Each pipe can irrigate an area of an acre and consumes less than half the quantity of water that we would otherwise use with conventional techniques of irrigation”. Given the diminishing water level in the state, the 42-year-old finds it pressing to adopt this method of watering crops.

“The UP Government commissioned a research which marked Budhana in the `dark zone’ given its sinking water levels. When I worked in the fields, we would manage to find water 80 feet below the ground and until four years ago, borewells could pump water out of 110-120 feet,” he says. “Today, in Budhana, water is found 220 feet under the ground. If we’re not cautious and water isn’t optimally utilised, it’s possible that in the coming five years we wouldn’t find water even 400 feet below the ground.”

The farmers were welcome to this novel idea, but a bit wary of the technique to be employed across crops.

Nawaz says, “Using this technique has a biological advantage. Research tells us that if you’re watering from the top, the grains are healthier. The best way to explain this technology to the farmers was to ask them which is the best way to irrigate land. Everyone agreed that natural rainfall was the best option and this technique recreates the sprinkle of rainfall. I told them, `Agar hum barish karte hain, toh kaisa hoga”. Nawaz has grown sugarcane, rice and wheat and returns to inspect the progress of his harvest, whenever he can afford a break from his film career.

We really appreciate this cause that Nawaz has taken up and only hope that every individual capable of helping others rises up to help those in need.

ALSO READ: WATCH: Nawazuddin Siddiqui turns evil in ‘Behooda’ from ‘Raman Raghav 2.0’

Prajakta Ajgaonkar

Passionate about writing, and a Bollywood lover, she is all that is sweet and endearing! She desires to put her best foot forward in everything that she does and loves to help anyone who’s in need.