Government Releases Report on 6th Census of Minor Irrigation Schemes

• 29 Aug 2023

On 26^th 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.