ADOPTION OF MICRO IRRIGATION IN INDIA: FACTORS AND POLICIES - Management, Performance, and Applications of Micro Irrigation Systems - page 4

1.1 INTRODUCTION
Water is becoming increasingly scarce resource that is limiting agricultural develop-
ment in many developing and developed economies across the world. A study by the
International Water Management Institute (IWMI) shows that around 50% of the in-
crease in demand for water by the year 2025 can be met by increasing the effective-
ness of irrigation [18]. In India, almost all the easily possible and economically viable
irrigation water potential has already been developed, but the demand for water for
different sectors has been growing continuously [17, 22]. Moreover, the water use ef-
ficiency in the agricultural sector, which still consumes over 80% of water, is only in
the range of 30-40% in India, indicating that there is considerable scope for improving
the water use efficiency.
The review of past studies lucidly shows that the solution to the problem of grow-
ing groundwater scarcity and persistent groundwater resource degradation across
regions are two folds: Firstly, the supply side management practices like watershed
development, water resources development through major, medium and minor irriga-
tion projects. The second is thorough the demand management by effi cient use of the
available water both in the short-run and long-run perspectives. This includes drip ir-
rigation and other improved water management practices. Recognizing the importance
of sustainable water use effi ciency in agriculture, a number of demand management
strategies (like water pricing, water users association, turnover system, etc.) have been
introduced since the late seventies to increase the water use effi ciency especially in the
use of surface irrigation water.
One of the demand management mechanisms is the adoption of micro irrigation
such as drip and sprinkler method of irrigation. Evidences show that many research-
ers attempted to study the impact of drip irrigation [1, 2, 4, 8, 11, 14-16]. The water
use effi ciency increases up to 100% in a properly designed and managed drip irriga-
tion system [3, 19]. Drip method of irrigation helps to reduce the over exploitation of
groundwater that partly occurs because of ineffi cient use of water under surface meth-
od of irrigation. Environmental problems associated with the surface method of irriga-
tion like water logging and salinity are also completely absent under drip method of
irrigation [14]. In addition, drip method helps in achieving saving in irrigation water,
increased water use effi ciency, decreased tillage requirement, higher quality products,
increased crop yields and higher fertilizer use effi ciency [11, 16, 20].
Though the potential benefi ts generated by the drip irrigation methods are appar-
ent, the adoption of drip irrigation is yet to be widely promoted across regions, states
and elsewhere. Kumar [5] found that the most ideal policy environment for promotion
of micro irrigation technologies in well-irrigated areas would be pro-rata pricing of
electricity, while this would create direct incentive for effi cient water use. Adoption of
micro irrigation systems is likely to pick up fast in arid and semi arid, well-irrigated
areas, where farmers have independent irrigation sources, and where groundwater
is scarce. Further, high average land holdings, large size of individual plots, and a
cropping system dominated by widely spaced row crops, which are also high-valued,
would provide the ideal environment for the same [6].