Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs
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State has around 29% irrigated land for all major crops as against the national average of 48.6% Odisha’s utilisation of irrigation potential has dropped which is a cause for concern, says the latest State Focus Paper brought out by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). “A decreasing trend is noticed in utilisation of irrigation potential. In 2007-08, the utilisation was 80.5%, which has decreased to 63.55% in 2016-17,” says the paper which was released here on Saturday. Water management The paper says the utilisation has been far less than the potential, which necessitates enhancement of water-use efficiency through adoption of proper water management practices in addition to appropriate irrigation devices. In 2014-15, irrigation potential was created for 52.04 lakh ha whereas in the same year it was used in 34.61 lakh ha. In the subsequent year, against irrigation potential created for 54.74 lakh ha, the utilisation was 32.94 lakh ha. In 2016-17, farmers used irrigation facilities in 35.53 lakh ha as against 55.91 lakh ha irrigation potential. The State has around 29% irrigated land for all major crops as against the national average of 48.6%. The country has achieved irrigation coverage of 60.1% for rice whereas Odisha lags behind with only 33.3%. In case of total cereal, the State’s irrigation coverage is 32% against national average of 60.1%. For pulses, irrigation covered in Odisha is 2.2% against country’s average 19.9%. Odisha’s productivity is comparatively low due to dearth of irrigation and inputs, insufficient investments by the farmers, outdated agronomic practices and for want of marketing facilities, the NABARD focus paper points out.
