More than 20 lakh hectares of land will be helped bring under drip and sprinkler irrigation and improve irrigation efficacy, said the irrigation companies with the budget announcement of the doubling of the micro-irrigation fund established with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to Rs 10,000 crore in 2021-22.
“The inclusion of Rs 5,000 crores to the micro-irrigation fund with NABARD will greatly boost irrigation coverage across all states and achieve the government’s goal of one crore hectare in next five years. sWith a 50 per cent contribution from farmers, the fund can cover 20 lakh hectares per year,” said Randhir Chauhan, MD, Netafim Irrigation India, which has a 20 per cent market share of micro-irrigation segment in the country.
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This fund will support maintain momentum in well-established states including Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Karnataka, Chauhan stated “. “The Fund will help re-start schemes in states such as Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. In relatively new states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and so on, further coverage will improve the situation,” he added.
There are presently 12.3 million hectares under micro-irrigation in the nation. Water scarcity and droughts in some places in the country have brought water-saving modern technologies in recent years, with various states taking on aggressive micro-irrigation expansions, says “ Anil Jain, MD, Jain Irrigation Systems.
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Mr. Jain said they’d like to see if additional funds had been allocated under government schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) which was initiated in 2015.
The government has set the benchmark of covering 100 lakh hectares under micro-irrigation in next five years. In the year 2019-20, around 11 Lakh farmers have benefited from the implementation of a drip and sprinkler irrigation system covering 11,72 Lakh hectare of land as per government data.
Chauhan has said that in order to optimize the use of the funds, we request that the condition of only additional subsidies be removed and that it be made available for compulsory state share too.
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Micro-irrigation is a proven technology that has gained massive popularity among farming community. Farmers were able to save irrigation water from 20 to 48%; saving energy from 10 to 17%; saving labor costs from 30 to 40%; saving fertilizers from 11 to 19% and increasing crop yields from 20 to 38%.
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