Date: 06/05/2023

Relevance: GS-2: Government Policies, Governance and related issues.

Relevance: GS-3: Different Types of Irrigation and Irrigation Systems; Drip Irrigation.

Key Phrases: Drip Irrigation, Groundwater, Mapping of the groundwater resource, Sustainable Development Goal, high-value crops, Pradhan Mantri Sinchayee Yojana, Central Groundwater Board.

Context:

• Two major problems India’s farmers face during summer are reduced supply of electricity for pump sets and scarcity of water for irrigation.
• Farmers cultivating high-value crops such as banana, sugarcane, cotton, paddy, etc., using groundwater are unable to supply water adequately to crops due to frequent load-shedding.
  • Therefore, Crop cultivation can be done profitably by adopting drip irrigation even in periods of water scarcity and load-shedding.

Key Highlights:

• Assured irrigation facilities have become paramount for crop cultivation due to major changes in farming practices after the introduction of the Green Revolution in 1965-66.
  • Tank and canal irrigation, which have been used for long, have declined in importance, whereas the use of groundwater for irrigation has increased manifold over time.
• As per the World Bank report, India is the largest groundwater user in the world.
  • India, with nearly 18% of the world’s population, occupies about 2.4% of the total geographical area and consumes 4% of total water resources.
• There is no central law governing the use of groundwater and various States have their own laws on regulating its extraction that is deployed in a perfunctory manner.
• Most crops grown in the rabi and summer seasons depend on groundwater.
  • However, due to the shortage of electricity during summer, the power supplied to the farm sector is significantly reduced in different States and most often water-intensive crops are the worst affected.

What is Drip Irrigation?

• Drip irrigation is the most efficient water and nutrient delivery system for growing crops.
• It delivers water and nutrients directly to the plant’s root zone, in the right amounts, at the right time, so each plant gets exactly what it needs, when it needs it, to grow optimally.

Why do Farmers prefer Drip Irrigation?

• Drip Irrigation not only delivers greater ROI compared to other irrigation methods, it also gives farmers an efficient and simple way to operate their farms.
• Higher consistent quality yields
• Huge water savings: no evaporation, no runoff, no waste
• Nearly 100% land utilisation - drip irrigation uniformly in any topography and soil type
• Energy savings: drip irrigation works on low pressure
• Efficient use of fertiliser and crop protection, with no leaching
• Less dependency on weather, greater stability and lower risks
• Drip irrigation is different from the conventional flood irrigation method, but the former can be used to grow various crops profitably using less water and electricity.
  • The flood method requires more time to irrigate each hectare of land, as a large amount of water is lost through evaporation, conveyance and distribution.
  • Drip irrigation, on the other hand, provides water directly to the root zone of the crop through a network of pipes/emitters and hence water loss is completely prevented.
  • The water saved in irrigating different crops is 30-70 per cent more under drip than under the flood method.
  • For example, an acre of sugarcane or banana crop needs only one hour for each turn of irrigation by the drip method.
    • But the same crops require 10-15 hours to irrigate using the flood method, because of which the consumption of both power and water increases.
• An Agriculture Ministry-initiated field study conducted in Maharashtra (an important drip-irrigated State) shows that about 1,065 kWh of electricity per hectare can be saved by adopting the drip method in sugarcane cultivation.
• A 2014 study by the Agriculture Ministry reveals drip irrigation can increase crop yield by 42-53 per cent, reduce irrigation costs by 20-50 per cent and fertiliser use by 7-43 per cent.
• Using the drip method, farmers in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu are growing various crops profitably even under highly deficient water and power situations.
• The report of the Task Force on Micro-Irrigation, set up by the Central Government in 2004, also states that water and electricity can be saved to a large extent by increasing the area under drip irrigation.

What are the major changes in Groundwater Irrigation?

• The widespread growth in rural electrification has brought about a major change in groundwater irrigation.
• The number of electric pump sets has increased from just 16 lakh in 1970-71 to 207 lakh in 2018-19 — an almost 13-fold increase.
  • This has hugely transformed India’s irrigation map.
  • For instance, the share of groundwater in the total irrigated area has grown exponentially from 34 per cent in 1970-71 to 65 per cent in 2019-20.
    • Therefore, Electricity consumption in the agriculture sector has increased 48 times during the same period.

Need of the Hour:

• Considering the various benefits, the Centre has been promoting drip irrigation since 1990-91 by providing a 50-100 per cent subsidy on capital cost to farmers adopting it.
  • To achieve the goal of ‘more crop per drop’, the Pradhan Mantri Sinchayee Yojana was launched in 2015, with higher allocation of funds to increase the area under drip irrigation.
• As a result, the area under drip has increased from just 70,589 hectares in 1991-92 to 63.21 lakh hectares in 2020-21.
• Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, among other States, have announced various schemes with hefty subsidies to popularise this irrigation system among the farmers.
  • More efforts are needed to achieve an appreciable growth in the area under drip irrigation.
• The Task Force has estimated that 270 lakh hectares of cultivated land are suitable for drip irrigation.
  • But, India’s drip irrigated area was only 6 percent of the total irrigated area in 2020-21.
• There can be no disagreement that drip irrigation can be a solution to profitable farming and that too with less electricity and water.
  • Therefore, the government and its agencies should take urgent steps to take drip irrigation to most of the farmers.
• Besides horticultural crops, more than 80 crops including cotton, groundnut, sugarcane, banana and tur can be cultivated through drip irrigation.
  • Therefore, it is important to create awareness among the farmers about the benefits of drip irrigation on a continuous basis.
• Central Groundwater Board data show that the number of blocks facing groundwater risk has increased from 1,645 in 2004 to 2,538 in 2020 due to over-exploitation.
  • The main reason for this is the cultivation of water-intensive crops such as sugarcane, banana, wheat and vegetables through the flooding method.
  • Therefore, drip irrigation should be made mandatory for cultivating all water-intensive crops in those blocks where groundwater exploitation is high.
• Measures should be taken to gradually bring sugarcane cultivation entirely under drip with the support of sugarcane mills.
• The government should also guarantee interest-free bank loans and immediate electricity connection for pumpsets to those farmers who agree to cultivate only through drip irrigation.
• There are reports that rapidly changing climate may cause changes in rainfall and increase water scarcity.
  • In the context of climate change, as uncertainties will increase in connection with groundwater resources, efforts must be made to find solutions that are essential for sustainable development.

Conclusion:

• Therefore, the sooner a larger area is brought under drip irrigation the faster can the goal of ‘more output per drop of water’ be achieved.

Source: The Hindu BL

Mains Question:

Q. What is the importance of Drip irrigation for Indian farmers? Also, suggest some measures for increasing the adoption of drip irrigation. (250 Words).