The Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Program (AIBP) and Har Khet Ko Pani are two important components of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY), an umbrella programme being carried out by this Ministry (HKKP). The HKKP itself is divided into four sub-components: Ground Water (GW) Development, Surface Minor Irrigation (SMI), Repair, Renovation and Restoration (RRR) of Water Bodies. However, the Government of India only conditionally approved the GW Development component for active projects when it approved the continuance of PMKSY for the years 2021-26.
Additionally, PMKSY contained two elements that are being carried out by other Departments. Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, which is no longer a part of PMKSY, implemented the Per Drop More Crop component of PMKSY. Additionally, the Department of Land Resources is carrying out the PMKSY’s Watershed Development component.
A cultivable command area of 16.42 lakh hectares has been covered over the 2016–2022 period under 85 projects included under the CAD&WM component of PMKSY–HKKP. Additionally, 2.58 lakh hectares of irrigation potential have been reached between 2016 and 2022 under the SMI component of PMKSY-HKKP, with 2,406 projects completed during this time. Similar to this, the RRR of Water Bodies component of PMKSY-HKKP has restored storage of 131.15 million cubic metres and enabled 0.84 lakh hectares of irrigation potential to be realised between 2016 and 2022. Up till June 2022, 27,962 wells under the GW Development component of the HKKP were built, producing a potential irrigation area of 70.89 thousand hectares.
The PMKSY has been evaluated for the years 2015–2020 by the Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO), a division of NITI Ayog. The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad conducted a study in 2021 titled “Performance and Impact of Micro Irrigation in Improving Water Use Efficiency in India’s Agriculture: Study of the PMKSY-PDMC.” Additionally, several authorities and agencies of the State Government as well as the Government of India periodically monitor the development of the various projects under the PMKSY.
In addition to the irrigation potential created under the various PMKSY-HKKP components previously mentioned, major and medium irrigation projects receiving partial financial assistance under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) component of PMKSY-AIBP created an additional irrigation potential of 24.35 lakh hectares between 2016–17 and 2021–2022. In addition, 67.46 lakh hectares have been covered with micro irrigation between 2015 and 22 as part of the Per Drop More Crop component of PMKSY being implemented by the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. Similar to this, an additional 14.54 lakh hectare of land has been brought under protected irrigation during 2015–22 via the Department of Land Resources’ implementation of the PMKSY’s Watershed Development component.
The concerned State Governments are carrying out command area development and water management works, principally consisting of on-farm development works, in an effort to close the gap between irrigation potential developed and utilised. Furthermore, under the centrally sponsored Command Area Development plan, afterwards known as Command Area Development & Water Management scheme, the Government of India has been partially funding designated projects for CAD&WM activities since 1974–1975. In 2015, the programme was included to the PMKSY-HKKP family. Since 2016, the Government of India’s central assistance for CAD&WM projects under PMKSY has been restricted to the pari passu implementation of CAD&WM projects for the 85 eligible projects out of the 99 priority projects covered by PMKSY-AIBP.
The Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Shri Bishweswar Tudu, provided this information in a written response in the Lok Sabha today.