The latest census on minor irrigation projects, the sixth in its series, indicates a significant rise in the count of such projects compared to the previous fifth census conducted in 2013-14. A substantial portion of these minor irrigation projects falls under private ownership. Conducted by the Ministry of Jal Shakti, the Department of Water Resources, River Development, and Ganga Rejuvenation has released the report for this sixth census.
The minor irrigation census holds crucial importance for effective policy formulation and planning. The census has been conducted six times so far, with reference years in 1986-87, 1993-94, 2000-01, 2006-07, 2013-14, and 2017-18. The recently released census report reveals that there has been an increase of approximately 1.42 million minor irrigation schemes compared to the previous census. At the national level, there has been a rise of 6.9 percent in groundwater schemes and 1.2 percent in surface water schemes.
The scope of minor irrigation schemes encompasses both groundwater and surface water projects. Groundwater schemes include categories like dug wells, shallow tube wells, medium tube wells, and deep tube wells, while surface water schemes encompass surface flow and surface lift initiatives. The census data discloses that the country reports 23.14 million minor irrigation schemes, with 94.8 percent (21.93 million) being groundwater schemes and the remaining 5.2 percent (1.21 million) classified as surface water schemes. Uttar Pradesh leads in the count of minor irrigation schemes, followed by Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.
Dug wells constitute the majority share among the minor irrigation schemes, followed by shallow tube wells, medium tube wells, and deep tube wells. An overwhelming majority of these schemes (96.6 percent) fall under private ownership. In the domain of groundwater schemes, private entities own 98.3 percent, while in the case of surface water schemes, private ownership accounts for 64.2 percent.
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