Micro Irrigation Fund corpus of INR 5000 crore also created with NABARD

 NEW DELHI, 11 June 2020: India’s Department of Agriculture Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare which is implementing ‘Per Drop More Crop’ has allocated INR 4000 crore to the State Governments. 

The central government is implementing the scheme under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY- PDMC). The PMKSY- PDMC focuses on enhancing water use efficiency at farm level through Micro Irrigation technologies viz.

Drip and sprinkler irrigation systems

Drip micro irrigation technique not only helps in water saving but also in reducing fertilizer usage, labour expenses and other input costs.

The State Governments have identified the beneficiaries to be covered under the programme. Fund release to some of the States is already under process for the year 2020-21. 

Micro irrigation fund corpus INR 5000 crore created with NADARD

Further, Micro Irrigation Fund corpus of INR 5000 crore has been created with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).

The objective of the fund is to facilitate the states in mobilizing the resources for expanding coverage of Micro Irrigation by taking up special and innovative projects and also for incentivising micro irrigation beyond the provisions available under PMKSY-PDMC to encourage farmers to install micro irrigation systems.

So far, Micro Irrigation Funds have been released to the states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu for INR 616.14 crore and for INR 478.79 crore, respectively through NABARD.

The area covered under these projects is 1.021 lakh ha. in Andhra Pradesh and 1.76 lakh ha. in Tamil Nadu. 

During the last five years (2015-16 to 2019-20), an area of 46.96 lakh ha. has been covered under Micro Irrigation through PMKSY-PDMC.