Karnataka Agricultural Policy - Institute for Social and Economic ...

Karnataka Agicultural Policy 2006
• A self-finance scheme will be formulated by the concerned WUAs to meet
the capital cost involved. Private-public partnership will be considered as
an alternative.
• The collection of rainwater in tanks will be improved by better water
harvesting in catchment area, desilting and other techniques. Catchment
area of each tank should be well maintained to avoid interruption of water
inflow and to make sure that tanks are filled every year.
13.7 Ground Water Irrigation.
Problem of high exploitation of ground water is quite severely felt in Karnataka. The exploitation of
ground water is not uniform throughout the state. Over exploited districts in terms of ground water
are Kolar, Bangalore Rural, Tumkur, Chitradurga, as well as under-exploited districts like Shimoga,
Chikkamagalur and Raichur present divergent scenario in respect of future use of ground water. In
many regions, the water quality is the main issue and their suitability for irrigation is questionable.
Farmers spend a large amount of money on bore wells without a clear economic analysis about the
profitability. The depth of bore well is some times as much as 600-800 ft. resulting in high cost of
lifting water and initial investment. The general perception that bore wells are perennial with
unlimited source of water has resulted in wasteful investment both by farmers and Government
agencies. Most open wells are dry and Irrigation potential of remaining wells is restricted to few
months to few years. Failure to recharge wells has affected the ground water potential. Following
steps will be taken to activate the sector and eliminate environment problems.
• Government will soon enact a legislation
to regulate and control the development
and management of ground water on the
lines of the model bill circulated by the
Ministry of Water Resources,
Government of India in January 2005.
This will be taken on priority.
Discouraging farmers through
adminsitrative steps for lifting water
from un-economic depths. The new bore
wells should not be located very close to
the existing bore well. The scheme of
Revitalising Irrigation
• Completion of the incomplete Projects
• Implementation of “On-Off” system.
• Particularly Irrigation Management
through WUAs in canal and tank
command areas.
• Tank to be rejenuated and managed by
Panchayats.
• Diversification of cropping pattern.
• Shifting to less Water Consuming
methods like SRI.
• Revision of water rates.
• Piped water delivery system.
• Catchment of area treatment in for tanks.
• Community based recharge of ground
water
• Discouraging deep tube wells.
• Micro-Irrigation as the first priority.
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