Ministry of Jal Shakti Releases the 6th Census Report On Minor Irrigation (MI) Schemes

Source: The post is based on the article “Ministry of Jal Shakti Releases the 6th Census Report On Minor Irrigation (MI) Schemes”  published in PIB on 28th August 2023

What is the News?

The Ministry of Jal Shakti has released the 6th Census Report on Minor Irrigation (MI) Schemes.

What are Minor irrigation(MI) schemes?

Minor irrigation (MI) schemes are defined as those structures either in ground water or in surface water category having Culturable Command Area (CCA) up to 2,000 ha.

Minor irrigation schemes are categorized into six types: (1) Dug wells/dug-cum-bore wells (2) Shallow Tube wells (3) Medium Tube wells and (4) Deep tube wells comes under the category of Ground water schemes whereas (5) Surface flow schemes and (6) Surface lift schemes comes under the category of Surface water schemes. 

What is the Census Report on Minor Irrigation (MI) Schemes?

The Government of India has been conducting census of minor irrigation schemes. So far, five censuses have been conducted with reference year 1986-87, 1993-94, 2000-01, 2006-07 and 2013-14 respectively.

The census is conducted under the centrally sponsored scheme “Irrigation Census”. 

The 6th minor irrigation census with reference year 2017-18 was completed in 32 States/ UTs. For the first time, information about the gender of the owner of the MI scheme was also collected in case of individual ownership.

What are the key findings of the 6th Census Report on Minor Irrigation (MI) Schemes?

Minor irrigation schemes: There are 23.14 million minor irrigation schemes in India spread over 695 districts. Of these 21.93 million (94.8%) are groundwater and 1.21 million (5.2%) are surface water schemes.

– Dug wells have the highest share in MI schemes followed by shallow tube wells, medium tube wells and deep tube wells.

State wise: Uttar Pradesh possesses the largest number of MI schemes in the country (17.2%) followed by Maharashtra (15.4%), Madhya Pradesh (9.9%) and Tamil Nadu (9.1%). 

Increase in MI Schemes: There has been an increase of about 1.42 million in MI schemes with their number standing at 23.14 million during 6th MI Census as compared to 21.7 million in 5th Census.

Ownership of minor irrigation schemes: 96.6% of minor irrigation schemes are under private ownership whereas 3.4% are under public ownership. Therefore, most minor irrigation schemes are owned by individuals or groups of farmers.

The most notable finding was that 18.1% of minor irrigation schemes are owned by women.