India: Tap drip irrigation to save water

Source(s): Hindu Business Line, the - The Hindu Group of Publications

By A. Narayanamoorthy

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There’s much scope for easing water scarcity in agriculture. The agricultural sector (irrigation) currently consumes about 80 per cent of water in India, thanks to the inefficient conventional flood method of irrigation (FMI). Data on water use efficiency indicates that India uses 2-3 times more water than major agricultural countries like China, Brazil and the US to produce one unit of food crop.

Benefits of drip irrigation

Drip method of irrigation (DMI) has been found to increase water-use efficiency by saving a substantial amount of water. What is DMI? Unlike FMI, the drip method supplies water directly to the root zone of a crop through a network of pipes and emitters. Since it supplies water directly to the crop, rather than the land around, water losses occurring through evaporation and distribution are significantly reduced. The on-farm efficiency of the drip irrigation system is estimated to be over 90 per cent; it is only 35-40 per cent for FMI.

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One of the major questions often asked is whether the fixed investment required for installing a drip system is economically viable. But the cost-benefit analyses done using field survey data reveal that DMI is economically viable even for small and marginal farmers cultivating different crops. Realising the significance of DMI, various promotional programmes have been introduced to increase its adoption by the Central and State governments since the early 1990s. Maharashtra is probably the first State to have taken a number of initiatives — subsidy programme being one such — to popularise DMI even during the mid-1980s. 

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India has enormous potential for DMI, which should be harnessed to reduce water scarcity. The Indian National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, in its report on Drip Irrigation in India, indicates that about 80 crops can be grown viably under DMI. Although DMI is considered to be highly suitable for wide spaced and high-value commercial crops, it is also being used for cultivating oilseeds, pulses, cotton and even paddy and wheat. The area under DMI has risen sharply in recent years but it is still far lower than the potential.

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