Micro irrigation mission gives fresh hope to farmers in Rajasthan

The Rajasthan Micro Irrigation Mission of the Ashok Gehlot government is proving to be a revolutionary step for the water-starved state’s farmers.

For farmers, who mainly depend on the monsoon to grow their crops, this mission is giving them fresh hopes.

Phoolchand Bairwa (38), a farmer from Bobas village in Jaipur district, who has immensely benefitted from this mission, has lauded the state government’s move.

He said that earlier he was farming through traditional methods due to which his agricultural produce depended on the monsoon.

Earlier, due to the shortage of water, irrigation was not possible on time. As a result, his hard work often went in vain.

He got information about the Rajasthan Micro Irrigation Mission of the state government and applied for it.

After the application, a farm pond was built on 1.5 hectares on his field and drip irrigation was started in his entire field.

A senior official of the agriculture department said that under the mission, the state government gives a 70 per cent subsidy to farmers on a ‘first-come-first-serve’ basis. It is to install a drip irrigation system on a maximum of up to 5 hectares of field.

Small and marginal farmers, women farmers and scheduled caste and scheduled tribe farmers get an additional 5 per cent subsidy.

The drip irrigation system in Bairwa’s field was installed at a cost of around Rs 1.8 lakh. The state government paid a 75 per cent subsidy to Bairwa for installing the system.

He said that water gets saved with the drip irrigation system and his yield as well as income has increased.

Recently, the state government sanctioned Rs 463 crore to further strengthen the micro irrigation system. This approval has been given under the Rajasthan Micro Irrigation Scheme.

Earlier, the target was to help 30,000 farmers benefit by constructing farm ponds in the next two years. However, now the target has been increased to 50,000 farmers.