Amai Mahalinga Naik, who single-handedly worked to irrigate his two-acre land and succeeded in raising a small plantation has been chosen for the Mangaluru Press Club Award, 2018.

Mr. Naik, 73, a resident of Amai village near Adyanadka in Bantwal taluk, was chosen by a panel of Balakrishna Gatti, Vasanth Kumar Perla and Nagaveni Manchi for the award, Club General Secretary Ibrahim Adkasthala said in a release. The award would be presented during the Press Club Day to be celebrated on January 5 at Urwa Church Hall.

An agriculture labourer and expert in climbing areca and coconut palms, Mr. Naik was working in the fields of Amai Mahabala Bhat. Realising his desire to own agricultural land, Mr. Bhat donated him two acres of land four decades ago; but being on hill slopes, it lacked accessibility to water sources.

Unmindful of the obstacles, Mr. Naik began drilling tunnels to fetch water as he was aware open well would not yield any water on the hill slope. He drilled not one, but seven tunnels and at the end, he got water that was suffice to raise his small plantation. He also built a water storage tank digging the ground on the land.

The slope terrain helped Mr. Naik introduce the drip-irrigation network in the field through gravitational force. He was engaged in his routine palm climbing for half a day and spent the rest of his time drilling tunnels. Mr. Naik also fell off a tree 14 years ago. Though he survived the fall, he could no longer climb palms and restricted himself to his field work.

With the help of his wife Lalitha and their three children, Mr. Naik has now raised areca, coconut, banana and pepper crops on one acre of the land and forest in another acre. As many as 300 areca and 75 coconut palms and 200 banana plants are on his field. He only uses conventional manure and does rainwater harvesting on his land. All these measures Mr. Naik implemented without taking any bank loans, depending solely on his work as a labourer.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Mangaluru – December 18th, 2018