In recent years, agriculture, the backbone of Indian economy, has been facing various challenges like lower productivity, resource crunch and erratic weather, all of these translating into lower returns.
Amongst these, availability of water is one of the most critical issues for the farming community. Fresh water withdrawals are highest by the agricultural sector, and accounts for nearly 84-85 percent of water withdrawal in India, which is well above the global average.
Centre of Excellences were established under the India-Israel Agriculture Project in various states which are helping the farming fraternity in India to adopt the latest technologies such as micro irrigation systems.
With the formation of 'Task Force on Micro Irrigation', the Central & state government recognised the importance of drip technology way back in 2003. To encourage farmers to take up drip irrigation in a big way, government has been extending subsidy through bodies like National Mission on Micro Irrigation (NMMI). Now, the micro irrigation sector has got the most needed fillip, under the central government's new initiative to increase farm productivity.
Israel is the example for the world in optimizing the use of water in general and agriculture in particular and for this India has openly embraced Israel. Micro irrigation has proven to be a technology which has the potential to change the face of Indian agriculture. Micro Irrigation Incubated in Israel and gradually spread worldwide.
The actions by the government should be accompanied by more aggressive promotions and simplifying the subsidy process for farmers to achieve mass adoption of smart irrigation solutions and make micro irrigation available to all.
Source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/
