On 26th August 2023, the Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS), Department of Water Resources (WR), River Development, and Ganga Rejuvenation (DoWR, RD & GR) released the All India (volume-I) and State-wise (Volume-II) report on 6th census on Minor Irrigation (MI) schemes.
- This report will be useful for planners, researcher scholars, agricultural and groundwater scientists, and all concerned with the development of irrigation and the agricultural economy of India.
Key Points:
i.As per the report, 23.14 million MI schemes have been reported in India, out of which 21.93 million are Ground Water (GW) and 1.21 million are Surface Water (SW) schemes.
ii.The report reveals that, for the first time, information regarding the gender of individual owners of MI schemes has been systematically collected. Among individually owned MI schemes, 18.1% are owned by women.
iii.Uttar Pradesh holds the largest number of MI schemes in India followed by Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.
Ground and Surface Water Schemes:
i.Leading States in GW schemes are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana.
- GW schemes comprise dugwells, shallow tube wells, medium tube wells, and deep tube wells.
ii.In SW schemes Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha, and Jharkhand have the highest share.
- The SW schemes comprise surface flow and surface lift schemes.
iii.There has been increase of about 1.42 million in MI schemes during 6th MI census as compared to 5th Census. At National level, Both GW and SW schemes have increased by 6.9% and 1.2%, respectively.
iv.Dug wells have the highest share in MI schemes followed by shallow tube wells, medium tube wells, and deep tube wells.
- 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.
v.In GW schemes, the share of private entities in the ownership is 98.3% whereas in SW schemes the respective share is 64.2%.
Category-wise Analysis:
i.Out of all MI schemes, 97.0% are ‘in use’, 2.1% are ‘temporarily not in use’ and 0.9% are ‘permanently not in use’.
ii.Shallow tube wells and medium tube wells lead in the category of ‘in use’ schemes. A majority of MI schemes (96.6%) are under private ownership.
Source of Finance:
i.Around 60.2% of schemes have a single source of finance whereas 39.8% of schemes have more than one source of finance.
ii.In a single source of finance, the majority of schemes (79.5%) are being financed by own savings of individual farmers.
About the Census of MI Schemes:
i.A reliable database for MI schemes is essential for effective planning and policy-making in the MI sector.
ii.With this objective, the Government of India (GoI) has been conducting a census of MI schemes.
iii.So far, 5 censuses have been conducted with the reference year 1986-87, 1993-94, 2000-01, 2006-07 and 2013-14 respectively.
iv.The 6th minor irrigation census with reference year 2017-18 was completed in 32 States/ Union Territories (UTs), and the 6th MI census work was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Parameters of the Census:
i.The census was conducted under the centrally sponsored scheme “Irrigation Census”, a parent component of Rationalisation of Minor Irrigation Statistics (RMIS) scheme.
- The scope of the “Irrigation Census” scheme has been enlarged by the launch of the First Census of Water Bodies in convergence with the 6th minor irrigation Census with the objective of developing a national database for all water bodies.
ii.Detailed information on various critical parameters like irrigation sources such as dug wells, shallow tube wells, medium tube wells, deep tube wells, surface flow, and surface lift schemes was gathered.
iii.Other parameters like 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, windmills, etc were also collected.
Recent related news:
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Minister of Jal Shakti, launched the Unified Registration Portal for Biogas/ Compressed Bio Gas (CBG)/ Bio CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) plants under Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan (GOBARdhan) scheme.
About Ministry of Jal Shakti:
Union Minister- Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (Constituency- Jodhpur, Rajasthan)
Ministers of State (MoS)- Prahlad Singh Patel (Constituency- Damoh, Madhya Pradesh); Bishweswar Tudu (Constituency- Mayurbhanj, Odisha)
