Author(s):

PR Ramteke, NP Navnage and AN Humane

Abstract: Water is a renewable resource, its availability in appropriate quality and quantity is under severe stress due to increasing demand from various sectors. Agriculture is the largest user of water, which consumes more than 80% of the country’s exploitable water resources. The decreasing availability of water to agriculture sector has become a serious limitation in many areas. The overall development of the agriculture sector and the intended growth rate in GDP is largely dependent on the judicious use of the available water resources. While the irrigation projects (major and medium) have contributed to the development of water resources, the conventional methods of water conveyance and irrigation, being highly inefficient, has led not only to wastage of water but also to several ecological problems like water logging, salinization and soil degradation making productive agricultural lands unproductive. It has been recognized that use of modern irrigation methods like drip and sprinkler irrigation is the only alternative for efficient use of surface as well as ground water resources. The term "micro-irrigation" describes a family of irrigation systems that apply water through small devices. At present, more than 60 percent of the area under drip irrigation can be attributed to orchids and plantation crops. The challenge lies in popularizing these technologies in major crops such as wheat, mustard, potato, cotton, alfalfa etc. One of the ways of doing this is through finding out the environmental and economic benefits of these technologies in saving water, fuel, power and fertilizer. This paper deals with the potential of micro-irrigation as an emerging tool for sustainable agriculture in India.

Pages: 1670-1672  |  659 Views  223 Downloads

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