The Ministry of Jal Shakti released a report on the 6th census on minor irrigation schemes on 26 August. As per the report, there are 23.14 million minor irrigation (MI) schemes, of which 21.93 million (94.8%) are Ground Water (GW) and 1.21 million (5.2%) are Surface Water (SW) schemes.
Uttar Pradesh possesses the largest number of MI schemes in the country followed by Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Leading States in GW schemes are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. In SW schemes Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha and Jharkhand have the highest share. GW schemes comprise dugwells, shallow tube wells, medium tube wells and deep tube wells. The SW schemes comprise surface flow and surface lift schemes.
The census was conducted under the centrally sponsored scheme ‘Irrigation Census’. Detailed information on various parameters like irrigation sources (dug well, shallow tube well, medium tube well, deep tube well, surface flow and surface lift schemes), irrigation potential created (IPC), potential utilized, ownership, holding size of land by owner, devices used for lifting water, sources of energy, energy conserving devices such as sprinkler and drip irrigation, use of non-conventional energy sources such as solar pumps, wind mills, etc., was collected.
This report will be useful for planners, policy makers, researcher scholars, agricultural and ground water scientists, administrators and all concerned with development of irrigation and agricultural economy of the country.
