Ragihalli panchayat is a cluster of 16 surrounding villages/hamlets with total population of 3119 from 738 households. Ragihalli is the biggest village followed by Shivanahalli with population 1052 and 736 respectively. Table 1 gives the population details of each village/hamlet in the panchayat.

Village is located in the undulating terrain where the elevation rages from about 700m to 950m. It experience annual rainfall of about 600 to 700 mm and has arid (dry) landscape with thin soil cover (rock beneath) in many places. Agriculture is the primary occupation in the village where Ragi is the major crop. Farmers grow oil seeds such as Castor, grains such as Buck wheat, Kidney beans (Avare) and also Grams, vegetables and flowers in irrigated lands. However, seasonal rain fed agriculture is practiced in the village due to non-availability of water during pre and post monsoon season. Ground water is available at more than 700 ft. which has gone up to 1000 ft. in few places. Village has a good livestock population with 894 cows, 959 sheep, 968 goats and 985 hen. Villagers also run two milk dairies in Ragihalli and Shivanahalli yet, many farmers are not owning high milk yielding cattle varieties. Reduction in fodder availability throughout the year and irregular payments in dairies are affecting cattle farming due to which villagers are not showing interest in having more high milk producing cattle.

Table 1: Village wise population details

All villages/hamlets in the panchayat are electrified where electricity is used for lighting and television operation. Few farmers have electrified irrigation pump sets. Cooking energy is mostly met by LPG connection. Rama Krishna mission (R K Misssion) of Shivanahalli is providing LPG cylinder to most of the villages. RKM Shivanahalli is continuously working for more than 3 decades for the betterment of villagers and restore forest patches in the elephant corridor to minimise the human-elephant conflict in the region. R K mission has also made significant contributions through a primary school and vocational training for the youths. There are 3 lower primary schools (1 to 5) and a higher primary school of which only school in Ragihalli (Higher primary) is functional (apart from school at RKM). There are about 4 kindergarten centre of which only one is functional yet there is no electricity and drinking water supply.
There is only one Ayurvedic health centre for more than 3000 villagers with a visiting doctor. Closest Primary Health Centre (PHC) is about 10km for the village which is not viable due to the lack public/private of transport facility. Alcoholism is a social evil in all villages, where few villagers operate the trading from home (without license). Lack of education, poverty and unemployment are aiding vandalism in the village especially in the current generation. Particulate matter of the air seems to be high in many villages due to crushing of stone in the quarry located in the vicinity. Regular blasting in the quarry caused breaks in walls of houses and damaged many structures. This also effected health of villagers where many of them suffering from respiratory and skin related diseases. Table 2 shows the sector wise status of the panchayat.
Table 2: Sector wise overview of the village

 Agriculture
Ragihalli village panchayat is an Agrarian economy where most of the families practice agriculture for their livelihood. The families without land work as agriculture labour and few people are dependent on jobs in the town. However, agriculture is the primary occupation in the village where Ragi is the major crop. Rain fed seasonal crop is grown by most of the farmers where more than 90% of the lands are not irrigated. Sericulture, oil seeds, grains, vegetables and flowers are grown in few irrigated lands in the village. Water availability throughout the year is a limiting factor for cropping, due to which many farmers have stopped growing Ragi in recent years and lands are left fallow.

Water Resources
The region receives annual rainfall of about 600 – 700mm. Agriculture and domestic requirement is met mainly by groundwater resources. There are about 15 bore wells in the region. An overhead water tank caters to the domestic water requirement of more than 700 households in 16 villages. Lack of watershed management with appropriate recharging mechanism has led to the decline of groundwater table, evident from the Ground water table of 700 feet and even some bore wells have crossed 1000 feet. Water for domestic use is also supplied at a common location through taps, for a cluster of 8-10 houses, which is available once in 2 or 3 days. Water is stored at few houses in underground sumps and also in big containers or drums. Water scarcity has affected the livelihood due to lack of agriculture and horticulture produce in the region.

		Ragihalli Lake
		Shivanahalli Lake

Figure 6: Waterbodies in the village

There are few lakes and constructed tanks in and around the panchayat. But most of these lakes and tanks are not maintained, which necessitates restoration of lakes and treatment of respective lake’s catchment/watershed (watershed management involving local community). Only, few lakes (such as Shivanahlli Lake) are in good condition. Rejuvenation and sustainable management of water bodies (lakes and tanks) with participation of local community will only solve the water scarcity in the region through sustained recharge of groundwater sources.

Figure 7: Common tap fecility	Figure 8: Community water storage tank

Intervention: Approaches towards sustainable agriculture

Table 3: Water requirement for different crops

Benefits: Multi-cropping practice with drip irrigation would be the necessary intervention in the region. This will have many benefits such as;