SOMNATH PROJECT ... contd
At present 580 cured leprosy patients live in Somnath, tilling the land and producing grain for the huge MSS family. All cured leprosy patients who have not been absorbed by the other activities of MSS are sent to Somnath to manage the fields and farms. Apart from agriculture, fishery, dairying, goatery and dryland horticulture is practised here.
The project area of Somnath is bounded on one side by a hill and on the other side by a river, and as such presents an ideal setting for the watershed development activities. 6 check dams and 22 dugout ponds harvest rainwater. There are 17 open dugwells of which 6 are for drinking water and 11 for irrigation. Together these structures provide supplemental irrigation to the kharif crop over 340 acres. On the whole, agriculture is practised over 850 acres, growing rainfed paddy, soyabean, tuar(pigeon pea) and wheat.
