Ministry of Jal Shakti has released the 6th census of minor irrigation schemes (with reference year 2017-18), shedding light on the state of irrigation practices across India.So far, five censuses were conducted in 1986-87, 1993-94, 2000-01, 2006-07, and 2013-14.
Key Highlights of the Report
Total Minor Irrigation Schemes
- A total of 23.14 million minor irrigation (MI) schemes have been reported in the country.
- Among these, 21.93 million (94.8%) are groundwater (GW) schemes, and 1.21 million (5.2%) are Surface Water (SW) schemes.
Dominant Types of Schemes
- Dug-wells have the highest share in MI schemes followed by shallow tube-wells, medium tube-wells and deep tube-wells.
- The 6th MI census recorded an increase of about 1.42 million MI schemes compared to the previous census.
- Nationally, GW schemes saw a 6.9% increase, while SW schemes increased by 1.2%.
Leading States in MI Schemes
- Uttar Pradesh leads in MI schemes in India, followed by Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.
- Maharashtra is the leading State in dug-wells, surface flow and surface lift schemes.
- Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Punjab are the leading States in shallow tube-wells, medium tube-wells and deep tube-wells, respectively.
- In SW schemes, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha and Jharkhand have the highest share.
Ownership Breakdown
- Approximately 96.6% of MI schemes are under private ownership.
- Among GW schemes, 98.3% are owned by private entities, and in SW schemes, this share is 64.2%.
- For the first time, data on the gender of MI scheme owners was collected.
- 18.1% of individually owned schemes are owned by women.
Financing and Sources
- Around 60.2% of schemes are financed through a single source.
- Own savings of individual farmers contribute significantly to single-source financing (79.5%).
- 39.8% of schemes have more than one source of finance.
Minor Irrigation scheme
- A minor irrigation scheme is a type of irrigation project that uses surface water or groundwater to irrigate a culturable command area (CCA) of up to 2,000 hectares.
- CCA is an area which can be irrigated from a scheme and is fit for cultivation.
- Minor irrigation schemes are classified into two major categories and six sub-categories.
- Ground Water (GW) schemes encompass dugwells, shallow tube wells, medium tube wells, and deep tube wells.
- Surface Water (SW) schemes consist of surface flow and surface lift schemes.
- The minor irrigation schemes provide the farmers with controlled and timely irrigation which the new high yielding varieties of seeds demand. These schemes are labour intensive, less implementation period and involve reasonable investments for their commissioning.