CHANDIGARH – The Punjab Government today enhanced subsidy on Drip and Sprinkling Irrigation from 75% to 85% for the small and marginal farmers in the state. The Government also decided to provide more than 1000 priority tube well connections to such farmers, who would opt for such kind of irrigation.
According to an official spokesman, the Irrigation Department has chalked out a comprehensive scheme to lay underground pipes in private fields providing 50% to the farmers for the purpose of Drip and Sprinkling irrigation. He said that the Punjab government has also facilitated the farmers’ 90% subsidy under National Agriculture Development Scheme to ensure irrigation in the areas having contaminated ground water.
The spokesman said that the farmers can save 50 to 70% water and can increase 30 to 100% yield by using the drip and sprinkling techniques of irrigation. He said that these techniques would also be beneficial for the farmers to leave the Paddy and Wheat crop circle adopting congenial environment for adopting cultivation of vegetables, pulses horticulture and other cash crops. He said that it is the need of the hour to adopt modern irrigation techniques since the ground water table has been depleting on large scale during past few years due to the limitless and unnecessary exploitation of ground water on Wheat and Paddy crop.
The spokesman said that Punjab government had been spending Rs 120 crores under various schemes launched by Soil and Water Conservation Department to conserve and preserve 34000 hectares agriculture land in the state. He said that out of 141 blocks in the state 103 blocks have been ‘black listed’, where the level of ground water depleting fastly due to unnecessary and unlimited usage of water. He said that the sensing the sensitivity of depletion in such areas, the state government has been chalked out this new techniques of irrigation with a record subsidy for the farmers.
