Accelerating growth of Indian agriculture: Micro irrigation an efficient solution

Executive summary

India’s population stands at 1.27 bn and is estimated to rise at a steady pace to reach 1.6 bn by the year 2050. (According to the World Bank estimates). Even though food grain production has increased significantly over the years, there is a need for the production to increase even further in order to meet the ever growing demand created with this population increase. Given the fact that land and water are limited resources, this would require an improvement in the productivity of crops. Additionally, of all the economic sectors, agriculture is the one where water scarcity has greatest relevance. Agriculture accounts for approximately 70 percent of the global freshwater withdrawals and approximately 90 percent of its consumptive use. According to the UN FAO, in 2010, irrigation & livestock accounted for 91 percent of water withdrawal in India, which is well above the global average. India has 18 percent of the world’s population with only 4 percent of the usable water resources and is expected to face the brunt of looming water scarcity crisis. With the need to increase productivity while saving water, micro irrigation will play a key role for the future of Indian agriculture.

Recognising the importance of micro irrigation, the government has taken various initiatives since 1992. The first real thrust however came in 2006, when the government launched a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for micro irrigation. This was later upgraded to the National Mission on Micro Irrigation (NMMI) and was implemented through the year 2013-14. For the year 2014-15, NMMI was subsumed under the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) and was implemented under the On Farm Water Management (OFWM) component of the scheme.

Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojna (PMKSY) was launched in 2015, integrating micro irrigation in the flagship scheme as an integral component. The scheme focusses on providing an end-to-end solution to the irrigation supply chain. One key differentiator for micro irrigation is that when compared to other components of this scheme, which include creating infrastructure to bring water to farms and watershed development, micro irrigation presents a quick-win opportunity for all the stakeholders where the implementation can be seen on ground within months. Developing infrastructure takes years while bringing area under micro irrigation is a task that only requires a few months.