Maharashtra authorities is planning to pump extra money into micro-irrigation tasks to double agricultural revenue by 2022.
The federal government’s ‘Extra Crop Per Drop’ programme goals to extend effectivity of water use by way of numerous measures, like diversification of crops and a phased shift in agricultural practices. In 2018-19, the state plans to optimise water effectivity by 20 per cent.
The Nationwide Financial institution of Agriculture and Rural Improvement (NABARD), in its annual report 2018-19, states, “Presently, gross space beneath mirco-irrigation is round a million hectares with common space expansed by about 100,000 hectares in 5 years.”
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has directed the Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Finance to revise the schemes to give more priority to micro-irrigation projects to achieve More Crop Per Drop. The state’s budget for irrigation projects and water conservation schemes is Rs 12,000 crore. According to estimates, the state’s overall expenditure after accounting for micro-irrigation will be Rs 15,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore.
According to the Ministry of Water Resources, “The irrigation potential in Maharashtra is 49.4 lakh hectares, whereas irrigated area was 24.47 lakh hectares. The irrigation potential created by local sectors (minor projects) is 17.32 lakh hectares and utilisation was only 2.07 lakh hectares.”
In the last three-and-a-half years, the state’s priority was to make 25,000 villages drought-free. The state has made 11,247 villages drought-free (water neutral) and plans to make the rest drought-free by 2019 through “jalyukt shivar projects”. Micro-irrigation is a step initiated to bridge the gap between irrigation potential created and utilised.
The state has also decided to bring all the land under sugar cultivation under drip irrigation. The kharif production for 2017 showed an increase in sugarcane crop from 6.33 lakh hectares in 2016 to 9.43 lakh hectares.
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