Dharwar Drilling Society Case

DHARWAR DRILLING SOCIETY (DDS) CASE STUDY

About Dharwar Drilling Society

Dharwar Drilling Society (DDS) is an institution that undertakes drilling assignments for small and marginal farmers so as to improve their productivity and help them to earn more and enjoy a better standard of living.

Objectives of Dharwar Drilling Society

The main objectives of Dharwar Drilling Society are:

* To make farmers self-reliant. When farmers have their own wells, they are able to repay their loans and don't have to depend on anybody for irrigation needs. Also, they don't face hardships in periods of less rain.

* To motivate the farmers so that more and more farmers opt for drilling wells in their farms.

* To cover the financial costs for unlucky farmers in cases with failed wells.

Problems that farmers face with drilling wells

The problems that farmers face when they opt for drilling wells in their fields are:

* Farmers only have their land as their asset. In order to drill wells in their field, they require a loan from bank for which they mortgage their land.

* When they face a case of failed well, they have to part with their land, as they are not able to repay the loan.

* Only 60% of wells are successful and the rest are failed wells.

* In case of failed wells, government only subsidizes the interest on loan and 20% of the loan amount. But as loan is usually 80% of the total expenditure, the farmer has to bear 84% of the loss himself. This loss is 60% for farmers from backward classes.

In such cases of failed wells, DDS is trying to find measures so as the loss incurred by the farmer is minimal and also that the entire burden should not come to the drilling society, as if it starts doing so, it will not be able to sustain itself as an institution and ultimately farmers won't be benefitted.

Some facts about the drilling process

* It takes Rs. 50 per foot to drill a well.

* The average depth of a well is 200 feet.

* 60% of the drilled wells are successful.

* For unsuccessful wells, in some cases, if drilling is done upto 250 feet, the well is successful. This comes as 6% of the failed wells. (30% of the 20% of failed wells)

Role of geophysical survey in drilling

It has been observed that if geophysical survey is done before drilling process, the rate of successful wells