Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
1.3 STATUS OF MICRO IRRIGATION IN TAMIL NADU
Tamil Nadu state ranks seventh in India in terms of area under micro irrigation. During
2008, a total area of 158,521 ha was practiced under micro irrigation in the Tamil Nadu
state. Of the total area under micro irrigation, the drip accounted for 82.85% (131,335
ha) and sprinkler for 17.15% (27,186 ha). In all India, the area under drip irrigation
was 36.82% and under sprinkler was 63.18%. It is clear that the drip method of irriga-
tion is more popular among the farmers in Tamil Nadu when compared to sprinkler
method of irrigation. It is seen that the Tamil Nadu state has only 9.2% of the total
drip area in India, where as the sprinkler irrigation accounts for only 1.1% of total area
in the country. The area under micro irrigation accounts 4.1% of the total area under
irrigation in the country. The area under micro irrigation is very low in Tamil Nadu
when compared to the national level area. The net sown area of the state is 5,126,000
ha, whereas the gross cropped area is 5,842,000 ha. The area under micro irrigation
accounts for only 3.1% of the net sown area of the state, whereas it accounts for 5.49%
of the net irrigated area and 4.79% of the gross irrigated area. Thus, there is a huge
potential to increase the area under micro irrigation in the state.
1.3.1
THE STUDY AREA (THE COIMBATORE DISTRICT OF TAMIL NADU
STATE)
In the study area, that is, the Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu state, agriculture de-
pends largely on minor irrigation projects and other sources such as wells, rain-fed
tanks, etc. The chief source of irrigation in the district is through wells. The average
well-failure rate is 47% for open-wells and 9% for bore-wells. There are six different
soil types viz., red calcareous soil, black soil, red noncalcareous soil, alluvial and col-
luvial soil, brown soil and forest soil. The mean annual rainfall for the 45 years (be-
tween 1961 and 2005) is worked out to be 687.1 mm and the coefficient of variation
is worked out to be 28.21%. The distribution of rainfall across seasons indicates that
the mean rainfall ranged from 16 mm during winter to 348 mm during northeast mon-
soons. The groundwater potential in January 2003 indicated that the total groundwater
recharge was 880.97 million cubic meter (MCM), net groundwater availability (90%
of total groundwater recharge) was 792.87 MCM, domestic and industrial draft was
40.57 MCM, irrigation draft was 779.13 MCM and the stage of groundwater develop-
ment was 103%.
The level of groundwater development exceeds 100% of the utilizable groundwater
recharge in 11 blocks, between 90 and 100% in four blocks and between 70 and 90%
in another four blocks. The stages of groundwater development in the study blocks,
viz. Anamalai and Madathukulam blocks was 51% and 56%, respectively. Increasing
private investment on wells is visualized over the years as groundwater irrigation as-
sumes importance. Farmers in this district rely heavily on groundwater for irrigation.
Dependence on groundwater for irrigation is a common phenomenon in both the
study blocks. The source wise area irrigated indicates that the groundwater irriga-
tion accounts 52.29% in Annamalai block and 35.85% in Madathukulam block. The
increasing trend in groundwater irrigation further confi rms that heavy dependence on
this for irrigation. This confi rms the importance of groundwater for agricultural crop
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