The State government claims to give continuous thrust on micro-irrigation to make the optimum utilisation of available water and increase crop productivity aside, the prevailing economic slowdown appears to have affected the implementation of the project to provide drip and sprinkler implements to farmers a huge subsidy ranging from 75% to 100%.
Against the action plan of the Horticulture Department that implements the micro-irrigation project to cover at least 2,71,562 acres (1,08,625 hectares) under drip and sprinkler systems during 2019-20, the achievement till February-end is hardly 1.78% or 4,833 acres. With only a fortnight’s time left for the completion of the financial year, reaching even a quarter of the target appears difficult.
“Achieving the target or even going near it even in terms of administrative sanction is difficult now given the impact of economic slowdown on the State and Central governments’ revenues and the release of funds for the purpose,” a senior official of the department said unwilling to be quoted. For providing the drip and sprinkler implements to the targeted extent of land, an amount of ₹669 crore is required, including ₹270 crore contribution of the Centre and about ₹400 crore share of the State.
Under the ambitious project initiated by the State government with the support from the Centre, drip and sprinkler implements are provided at 100% subsidy to SC and ST farmers, at 90% subsidy to BC and other small and marginal farmers and at 80% subsidy to farmers of other communities. For portable sprinklers, the subsidy given is 75% for 2.5 acres per farmer.
Sources said that the micro-irrigation project has failed to make headway this year (2019-20) only due to paucity of funds. The amount spent on the project till February-end was only ₹16 crore covering 1,745 farmers. The extent of land covered under micro-irrigation so far this year is only 0.73% of the land covered till formation of Telangana or only 4,833 acres out of 6,60,243 acres covered so far.
Officials further stated that 11,97,500 acres of land was covered under micro-irrigation project by supplying drip and sprinkler implements with varying year-wise subsidy before formation of Telangana — from 2003-04 to 2013-14 benefiting 5.02 lakh farmers. After formation of the State, the extent covered is 6,60,240 acres benefiting nearly 2.5 lakh farmers during 2014-15 to 2019-20.
