Dr. Yatish B. Vasudeo CSR Activity

India will need 320 MMT of food grains by 2025 to cater to a population of 1.3billion is the estimate of agriculture ministry. Boosting farm output is urgent as India will never be free from swings in international prices in globalized work. India’s agriculture productivity still ranks far below the best in the world. Food grain production in 2007-08 was 230.7 million tons enough to cater to population of 1.1 billion.

Irrigation is the most important element in agriculture process. And judicious use of available water is the need of hour. As per official data around 46.34 percent of India’s net sown area of around 140.80 million hectares was under irrigation till 2011-12. To achieve the target of total irrigation massive fund of Rs. 50,000 + crore is needed as per the experts.

The outstanding feature of Indian Agriculture is its dependence on rainfall. Due to unequal distribution of rainfall during the year to year in respect of quantity, incidence and duration, Indian agriculture gets affected. Hence the development of irrigation was accorded priority in the India’s five year plans.

Despite economic miracles, the incidence of poverty in India does not seem to be coming down. Among many other cases for poverty, scarcity of water is a major factor that affects the economic standing of an individual, a family or a community. Water is a key factor in changing the fundamental living conditions and bringing about the development of the poor. However, with our growing population pressures it is becoming increasingly difficult to satisfy water needs of people, of agriculture, industries and other sectors of our economy. India is at the threshold of a water scarcity situation. About one third of country’s area is draught prone. Poverty in India is closely related to over all agriculture productivity.

It is clear from above that efficient use of water resource is basic to survival of the ever increasing population of the country. In arid and semi-arid climatic conditions, the timing and amount of rainfall are not adequate to meet the water requirement of crops. Therefore, supplementary irrigation is essential to raise the crops, necessary to meet the needs of food and fiber for growing population. Scientific irrigation water management provides the best insurance against weather induced fluctuations.

“Irrigation efficiency can be improved by adoption of modern methods of irrigation to achieve the goal more crop per drop.”