Government Releases Report on 6th Census of Minor Irrigation Schemes
- 29 Aug 2023
On 26th August, the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation unveiled the findings of the 6th census on minor irrigation schemes.
Key Points:
- Scheme Distribution: The country reports a total of 23.14 million minor irrigation (MI) schemes, with 94.8% being Ground Water (GW) schemes and 5.2% Surface Water (SW) schemes.
- Groundwater and Surface Water Breakdown: Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana lead in Groundwater schemes, while Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha, and Jharkhand excel in Surface Water schemes.
- Scheme Types: GW schemes include dugwells, shallow tube wells, medium tube wells, and deep tube wells, while SW schemes comprise surface flow and surface lift schemes.
- Increase in MI Schemes: The 6th census shows a rise of about 1.42 million MI schemes compared to the previous census.
- National Growth: GW schemes increased by 6.9%, and SW schemes increased by 1.2% nationally.
- Dominant Scheme Types: Dug-wells lead, followed by shallow tube-wells, medium tube-wells, and deep tube-wells.
- Ownership and Usage: 97.0% of MI schemes are 'in use', 2.1% are 'temporarily not in use', and 0.9% are 'permanently not in use'.
- Ownership Pattern: 96.6% of MI schemes are privately owned, with a higher share in GW schemes (98.3%) than SW schemes (64.2%).
- Inclusion of Gender Data: For individually owned schemes, 18.1% are owned by women.
- Finance Sources: Around 60.2% of schemes have a single source of finance, while 39.8% have multiple sources.
- Single Source of Finance: Majority (79.5%) of schemes with a single source are financed by individual farmers' savings.
