Rashtriya Krishi (English)

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Irrigation Water:Starting Point of Agriculture


Affiliations
1 Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Agricultural Farm, Burdwan (W.B.), India
     

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There is no option except to produce more food and other commodities under conditions of diminishing per capita arable land and irrigation water resources.”-Prof. M.S. Swaminathan. Irrigation is the method in which a controlled amount of water is supplied to plants at regular intervals for agriculture. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall. The world over, the irrigation sector is the largest user of water-almost 80 per cent of the water in the world is taken up by irrigation. In India, the irrigation sector uses 85 per cent of its available water resources. The average rainfall in India is 1170 mm and given the geographical area of 3.3 million km, gives India 4000 cu km of water. Almost 50 per cent of this water is lost to evaporation, percolation, sub-surface flows to ocean and only 1953 bcm is accounted for. The population of our country in 2050 AD will be around 1593 million for middle variant growth, as projected by United Nations (2004 revision) and corresponding food grain requirement will be about 450 million tones. Development of irrigation coupled with high yielding varieties of crops and increased use of fertilizers may possibly be the only strategy available to achieve the required level of production. Availability of water for irrigation is thus critical to self-sufficiency in food. In-basin water resources development alone cannot increase the irrigation area beyond certain limits. The ultimate irrigation potential that can be achieved from in-basin development is estimated to be around 140 million hectares. But, for achieving the food production level of about 450-500 million tones, it is imperative that an irrigation potential of at least 130 million hectares for food crops alone and 160 million hectares for all crops is created. One of the major strategies for achieving such a massive increase in irrigation potential could be inter-basin transfer of water.
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  • Irrigation Water:Starting Point of Agriculture

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Authors

Hiralal Jana
Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Agricultural Farm, Burdwan (W.B.), India

Abstract


There is no option except to produce more food and other commodities under conditions of diminishing per capita arable land and irrigation water resources.”-Prof. M.S. Swaminathan. Irrigation is the method in which a controlled amount of water is supplied to plants at regular intervals for agriculture. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall. The world over, the irrigation sector is the largest user of water-almost 80 per cent of the water in the world is taken up by irrigation. In India, the irrigation sector uses 85 per cent of its available water resources. The average rainfall in India is 1170 mm and given the geographical area of 3.3 million km, gives India 4000 cu km of water. Almost 50 per cent of this water is lost to evaporation, percolation, sub-surface flows to ocean and only 1953 bcm is accounted for. The population of our country in 2050 AD will be around 1593 million for middle variant growth, as projected by United Nations (2004 revision) and corresponding food grain requirement will be about 450 million tones. Development of irrigation coupled with high yielding varieties of crops and increased use of fertilizers may possibly be the only strategy available to achieve the required level of production. Availability of water for irrigation is thus critical to self-sufficiency in food. In-basin water resources development alone cannot increase the irrigation area beyond certain limits. The ultimate irrigation potential that can be achieved from in-basin development is estimated to be around 140 million hectares. But, for achieving the food production level of about 450-500 million tones, it is imperative that an irrigation potential of at least 130 million hectares for food crops alone and 160 million hectares for all crops is created. One of the major strategies for achieving such a massive increase in irrigation potential could be inter-basin transfer of water.