MICRO IRRIGATION IN PARTICIPATORY MODE PAYS HUGE DIVIDENDS – APMIP EXPERIENCES, INDIA

摘要

Almost 70% of all available freshwater is used for agriculture across the world. In India morethan 80 % of the renewable water resources are consumed in agriculture alone. Many of theworld's most important grain lands are consuming groundwater at unsustainable rates. Aswe have stepped into the twenty fi rst century, the new frontier is boosting water productivity,getting more from lesser amount of water devoted to crop production.Government of Andhra Pradesh has launched the Andhra Pradesh Micro Irrigation Project(APMIP) in 2003 to promote this water saving irrigation technology in large scale for sustainabledevelopment of agriculture. The major thrust was on to put the 3 million electrifi ed pump setsin the state of Andhra Pradesh into micro irrigation. The project has so far covered more than1.042 m ha area under micro irrigation systems in 9 years period with capital investment of Rs31,970 million (US $ 533 million @ Rs 60 per 1 US$), benefi ting 0.66 million farmers.