Q1 of 23 Page 80

Our country is experiencing drought and water shortage due to low and inadequate rainfall. You are concerned about this. Address your class for two or three minutes about periodic conditions drought in the country, and what should be done to counter its impact. Use illustrative examples from the poem.

India is a country that is still dependent on rain for a lot of its water supply. Most agriculture in the country continues to be rain fed. Monsoons in India, being a subject to climate change have been very erratic over the past few decades. As a result, farmers have suffered, crops have failed, and rain-fed rivers continue to go dry and deprive people from water. Therefore, as this phenomenon is no longer new, there is the need to adopt certain practices to counter water shortage with water conservation, and hence prevent seasonal droughts. Rainwater harvesting is one of the most convenient techniques to collect water during rainfall and then utilize it later for irrigating fields during times of need. The use of drip irrigation is also effective, as it minimizes water loss and ensures adequate irrigation to individual crops. Collecting and using storm runoff, and collecting waters in reservoirs are some more techniques to ensure that droughts don’t turn into famines. Therefore, these are some tactics that can help minimize problems caused by water shortage, so that calamities like famines can be avoided. As Seamus Heaney mentioned the angst that is felt by those caught in a famine, like the one caused in Ireland in 1845, it is necessary to control the seasonal droughts in the country from becoming widespread and uncontainable. To ensure that the hands that feed the entire country do not go wanting, using better irrigation tactics is essential.


More from this chapter

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2

As a farmer, design a poster / pamphlet to convey the message that it is the responsibility of all to preserve and protect Mother Earth with suitable references from Heaney's poem.

 3

The Indian economy depends on agriculture and the harvest festival is popularly celebrated throughout the land. Based what you have seen or read about and together with your own ideas , write an article describing the harvest festival in your locality in about 150-200 words.

 1

Listen to the poem. Speak on the commonality between "At a Potato Digging" and the poem "Patrolling Barnegat" by Walt Whitman.

WILD, wild the storm, and the sea high running;


Steady the roar of the gale, with incessant under-tone muttering;


Shouts of demoniac laughter fitfully piercing and pealing;


Waves, air, midnight, their savagest trinity lashing;


Out in the shadows there, milk-white combs careering;


On beachy slush and sand, spurts of snow fierce slanting-


Where, through the murk, the easterly death-wind breasting,


Through cutting swirl and spray, watchful and firm advancing (That in the distance! is that a wreck? is the red signal flaring?), Slush and sand of the beach, tireless till daylight wending, Steadily, slowly, through hoarse roar never remitting,


Along the midnight edge, by those milk-white combs careering, A group of dim, weird forms, struggling, the night confronting, That savage trinity warily watching.

 1

In groups of four, brainstorm the topic Nature's Fury - Its Consequences and Alternatives. Make a powerpoint presentation of about 3-4 minutes expressing your group's views to the class.