Chief Minister Raman Singh on Wednesday asked the Water Resources Department officials to prepare a blueprint of irrigation schemes to be completed in a time-bound manner and submit the same to the State Government at the earliest.
He also directed all the senior district-level officers open public drinking water outlets for people to counter the severe heat wave conditions in the entire State.
The Chief Minister was addressing a meeting of the Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and In-charge Secretaries of all districts.
Singh called upon the top officials that lok Suraj Mission will be held from April 25 to May 24 and ensure that citizens get basic facilities as early as possible at the Block Developmental level.
The In-charge Secretaries should submit reports of their observations to Chief Minister and Chief Secretary.
An awareness campaign should be launched to conserve water and the citizens should go in for water harvesting. The farmers should be requested to utilize irrigation water and not underground water for Rabi crop. This step will help in conserving water in the hand-pumps which will cater to the needs of villagers.
Singh stressed upon the need to carry on the mission with the co-ordination of Sarpanchs and panchayat secretaries as is done in Rajnandgaon district.
Notably, Chhattisgarh Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Brijmohan Agrawal on April 4 this year had stated that micro irrigation projects have been fulfilling irrigation needs of far-flung areas of the State.
He had urged the Centre to provide funds for big, medium and micro irrigation projects.
Agrawal was addressing the four-day long India water week at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.
He said that over 1.5 lakh hectares of land could get irrigation facility through micro irrigation projects in Chhattisgarh and demanded Rs 800 crore from the Centre for development of micro irrigation projects.
The Minister further said that budget in Chhattisgarh has been increased from 23 per cent to 34.76 per cent for ensuring development of water resources in the State.
Notably, Chhattisgarh is among 13 states which had been mentioned in the Economic Survey report 2015-16 as a success story on use of drip irrigation by farmers on their lands.
The results from an impact evaluation of National Mission on Micro Irrigation of the Union Ministry of Agriculture conducted in 64 districts of 13 states mainly — Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand — are revealing on the benefits of drip irrigation, according to the survey report.
There were substantial reductions in irrigation costs and savings on electricity and fertilisers .This is because water is efficiently supplied and hence pumps are used for a limited time. Moreover, water soluble fertilisers are supplied directly to the root of the plant and hence there is less wastage, it stated.
Yields of crops also went upto 45 per cent in wheat, 20 per cent in gram and 40 per cent in soybean, the report stated.
The resulting improvement in net farm incomes is substantial. Until now micro-irrigation techniques, owing to high fixed costs of adoption, have mostly been used for high value crops. However, recent research has shown its feasibility even in wheat and rice, the report stated.
Notably in February last year, the Chhattisgarh government decided to follow the Gujarat model of 'Drip and Sprinkler Irrigation' practices in the State.
It is worth mentioning here that many villages in Gujarat have adopted 100 per cent Drip and Sprinkler Irrigation systems to water crops. In June 2009, more than 93,000 farmers in Gujarat have adopted Drip Irrigation for their total 1.51 lakh hectare land.
Drip Irrigation system and inter-linking of 21 rivers of Gujarat for conservation of water has made it possible for record Sugarcane cultivation in that State.
The Gujarat Green Revolution Company ltd (GGRC) is aimed to promote Micro Irrigation System (MIS) to the farmers of Gujarat as an implementing agency on behalf of Government of Gujarat (GoG) and Government of India (GoI) to bring 2nd Green Revolution in consonance with the 'Agriculture policy of Gujarat Vision 2010' so as to save water and energy, besides multiple benefits to improve Agricultural productivity and farmer’s prosperity at large.
The Chhattisgarh State Seed and Agriculture Development Corporation in 2014 had also decided to distribute Drip and Sprinklers to the State's farmers under the Minor Irrigation Project, officials here stated.