Context: Recently, the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation released the report on the 6th census on Minor Irrigation (MI) schemes. 

About the survey

• Census of MI schemes is being conducted for effective planning and policy making in this sector.

• Five censuses have been conducted in 1986-87, 1993-94, 2000-01, 2006-07 and 2013-14 respectively. 

• The census was conducted under the centrally sponsored scheme “Irrigation Census”. 

• Parameters collected: irrigation sources, irrigation potential created (IPC), potential utilized, ownership, holding size of land by owner, devices used for lifting water, sources of energy, energy conserving devices, use of non-conventional energy sources.

• Irrigation sources included- dug well, shallow tube well, medium tube well, deep tube well, surface flow and surface lift schemes

Key Highlights of the report

Number of minor irrigation schemes

• 23.14 million minor irrigation (MI) schemes are present in the country, out of which 94.8% are Ground Water (GW) and 5.2% are Surface Water (SW) schemes.

• Dug-wells have highest share in MI schemes followed by shallow tube-wells, medium tube-wells and deep tube-wells. 

State-wise distribution of minor irrigation schemes

• UP has the largest number of minor irrigation schemes (17.2%) followed by Maharashtra (15.4%), MP (9.9%) and Tamil Nadu (9.1%). 

Groundwater-based minor irrigation schemes

• Groundwater accounts for a major share (94.8%) of all minor irrigation schemes in India. 

• Among the Groundwater schemes, dug wells and shallow tube wells are declining whereas there is an increase in medium and deep tube wells. Among surface water schemes, the share of surface lift is declining while the share of surface flow schemes is increasing. 

• Leading States in GW schemes are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.

Surface water-based minor irrigation schemes

• Surface lift schemes are declining whereas surface flow schemes are increasing. 

• The SW schemes comprises surface flow and surface lift schemes.

• Leading States in SW schemes Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha and Jharkhand. 

• Both GW and SW schemes have increased by 6.9% and 1.2%, in India respectively. 

Individually owned schemes

• First time, the information about gender of the owner of MI scheme was collected in case of individual ownership.

• Out of all the individually owned schemes, 18.1% are owned by women.

Finance of MI scheme

• Around 60.2% schemes have single source of finance whereas 39.8% schemes have more than one source of finance, with maximum (79.5%) of being financed by individual farmers.

Mode of water distribution

• There has been an improvement in water use efficiency and a decline in the wastage of water using improved water distribution devices over the years. 

• The use of open channels for conveying water to fields has declined to 42% (though still the most dominant mode). Correspondingly, the share of efficient water distribution systems like surface pipe, underground pipe, drip and sprinklers has increased. Underground pipe has recorded the highest increase followed by surface pipe and drip. 

Lifting devices in minor irrigation schemes

• Majority of schemes i.e., 57.6% have submersible pumps followed by 37.1% centrifugal pumps, and 1.9% turbine whereas 3.4% are operated by manual/animal lifting and other devices. 

• 76% of schemes use electricity as a source of energy followed by diesel pumps in 22.2% of schemes.

About the Minor Irrigation (MI) schemes

• Minor Irrigation Schemes are defined as those structures either in groundwater or in the surface water category having culturable command areas up to 2,000 hectares. 

• Ground Water schemes provide irrigation throughout the year and are dependable which has helped in sustaining agricultural production over the past years. Groundwater-based minor irrigation schemes comprise dug wells, dug-cum bore wells, shallow, medium and deep tube wells.

• Dug wells cover ordinary open wells of varying dimensions, dug or sunk from the ground surface into a water-bearing stratum to extract water for irrigation.

• Surface water scheme comprises surface flow schemes and surface lift irrigation schemes. Surface flow schemes typically consist of tanks, check-dams, and structures and can serve as water conservation cum groundwater recharge schemes. These structures are generally prevalent in hilly regions.

• Surface lift schemes are generally built in regions where topography does not permit direct flow irrigation from rivers and streams and hence water must be lifted into irrigation channels. 

Benefits of Minor Irrigation Schemes 

• Need small investment

• Have short gestation periods in which they become functional

• Benefits of these schemes directly reach farmers

• Have better control overflow of water

• Contribute a substantial share of irrigation across the country 

Thus, minor irrigation schemes are essential and critical to increase the productivity of agriculture in the country. This is especially true in the face of climate change.