Farmers take to drip irrigation to cut cost,and save water

The central and state governments together provide a subsidy of 75 per cent to farmers willing to set up drip or sprinkler systems under the Centre Sector Scheme of Micro Irrigation (CSSMI). It has come as boon for those vegetable and fruit farmers who can not afford the costly deep bore tubewells.

Under the system,a network of pipes is laid in the field through which upto 35 litres of water can given to a plant in an hour’s time. Under the flood system,as is used when irrigating the farm with water from a deep bore tubewell,the water often takes hours to reach the other end even as a huge quantity goes waste. The pipes can last more than 10 years if maintained properly.

As per the farmers and agriculture experts,the drip or the sprinkler system can help double the yield.

“I shifted to drip and sprinkler irrigation couple of years ago on seven acres of land. The water consumption in my farm has gone down by nearly 75 per cent and it has also nearly doubled the crop yield,” said Davinder Singh Sandhu,a Nakodar farmer. He now uses his deep bore tubewell to irrigate on contract other farmers’ fields.

He shifted to the drip irrigation system when faced with the possibility of setting up a new deep bore tubewell as the existing one would have gone dry in a few years. With water table receding due to excessive exploitation to irrigate the crops,the farmers have been forced to go for new and deeper borings every year few years – which turns out to be very costly exercise.

“I don’t need it (new deep bore tubewell) now that I have adopted micro irrigation,” said another Nakodar farmer Simrat Pal,he uses the system to irrigate eight acres of his land.

“It’s a boon for the farmer community. I have been able to cut down on water consumption by 70 per cent,electricity by 65 to 70 per cent and fertilizers by 40 per cent,” said farmer Har Narayan Singh who installed the system in 12 acres of land.

“There were hardly any takers when the scheme was introduced in Punjab in 2006,” Chief Conservator,Land and Water,Anil Kumar Sondhi said,adding that they earlier used to convince the farmers to adopt the system. Now farmers themselves approach the department. With this system,the state government is also providing tubewell connection on priority basis.

“It is a centre sponsored scheme. Five years after it was introduced,it has started showing results. A total of 75 per cent subsidy,including 50 per cent by Centre and 25 by state government,is provided to the farmers in general category while it is 80 per cent subsidy in case of reserved category,” the Chief Conservator added.

In Punjab,15,000 beneficiaries have brought18,272 hectares of land under this system of irrigation,he added.