'Poor facilities hamper rapid agri growth'

Although Gujarat has a net sown area of about 51 per cent, with a high proportion of land available for cultivation, there are several issues that have been hampering rapid growth in agricultural output in the state, says a State Focus Paper (SFP) prepared and presented by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) last week.

Low irrigation facilities, sea water intrusion in a large number of areas, lack of co-ordinated efforts to sustain surface water, low level of awareness about credit facilities available and poor water management continue to hamper growth and these issues need to be addressed, the state focus paper said.

Over 70 per cent of the cultivable land in the state is either arid, semi arid and is cultivable only under rain-fed conditions, the report said.

In addition, the forest area too is just 9.69 per cent of the total area, thus surface water cannot be stored in a major portion of the area.

The report said regions of south Gujarat have been facing agriculture problems because of excessive water logging.

Canal irrigated areas of south Gujarat have become water-logged due to excess use of irrigation water, thus harming crops to an extent, the report said.

For more than a decade, while regions of south Gujarat have been receiving excess rainfall, the regions of central and north Gujarat, along with Saurashtra, have been receiving scanty rainfall.

The Nabard report also expresses concern over the increasing level of salinity in ground water, especially in coastal areas.

Sea water intrusion in coastal areas of Saurashtra is on the rise and more and more cultivable areas in the region are being rendered useless for irrigation because of sea water intrusion.

The report also suggests a huge scope for development of fisheries in the state.

Gujarat has a 1,640 km coastline and 1.88 lakh hectares of inland water bodies in the form of ponds, tanks, reservoirs and rivers.

It also said there seems to be ambiguity in the policy for promoting water-user associations, especially under the Sardar Sarovar Project of the state government.

The state government is looking to solve the surface and ground water crisis permanently by launching its ambitious 'Sujalam Sufalam' project.

Under the project, which will cost over Rs 6,000 crore, ground water will be replenished and surface water preserved.

The project, kicked off last week, is expected to be completed by December 2005.