Micro irrigation project in Krishna district much behind schedule

The implementation of Andhra Pradesh Micro Irrigation Project (APMIP), taken up in 104 villages of 44 mandals in Krishna district, is progressing at a snail's pace.

Seven private companies, who were drafted for the project, have installed drip and sprinkler water supply systems in only 552.38 hectare as on June 15 as against a target of 6,163 hectare during the first phase.

The companies which include Jain, Plastro, Netafim, EPC, Premier, Parixit and Nagarjuna are facing problems of transporting men and material to the fields selected, according to a senior government official.

The seven companies have so far set up only 200 systems in the uplands (501.9 hectare) of 20 mandals and 37 systems in the delta (50.48 hectare) lands of nine mandals at a cost of Rs 1,18,03,096.

Forty branches of eight banks have already sanctioned loans totalling Rs 1,48,44,986 to 298 farmers. The government has released an amount of Rs 1.75 crore as subsidy out of a total subsidy compenent of Rs 22.13 crore allocated for the scheme.

Besides, the new state government increased the subsidy component from 50 per cent to 90 per cent per beneficiary. The District Water Management Agency has (DWMA) been overseeing scheme implementation.

DWMA project director Shaik Salam, speaking to Business Standard, said the total project outlay for the district was fixed at Rs 44,26,44,000 to provide micro irrigation to 8,178 hectare. The scheme was being implemented in sugarcane (delta) fields in 22 mandals and in lands of other crops (uplands) in 22 mandals.

"Its objective is to improve quality and quantity of yields by supplying water directly to the crop," he said.

But it is not applicable to paddy crop. Of the 5,000 applicants for the scheme, 298 beneficiaries "" cultivating sugarcane (66 ryots), horticulture (138 ryots), non-paddy crops (93 ryots) and mulberry (one ryot) "" were selected.

The beneficiaries, who had taken up drip-sprinkler (bindu-tumparla) cultivation, have realised that they are now able to supply exactly required quantity of water to their crops.

"Fertigation tanks are connected to the micro irrigation equipment and fertilisers and pesticides sprayed on crops. Farmers are saving a lot of expenses and not a drop of water, the precious resource, is wasted," Salam said.

Though the scheme was inaugurated in November last year, the achievement rate is disappointing as the private companies are dragging their feet to get into work at the ground level, he said.

The achievement rate has so far been 10.98 per cent of the first phase target and 8.27 per cent of the total target. Of the companies, Jain set up 62 drip and 41 sprinkler systems, covering 242.28 hectare.

Netafim erected 30 drip systems, covering 92.24 hectare. Nagarjuna set up 29 drip systems, covering 51.55 hectare. Plastro's record is 19 drip systems (53.41 hectare), that of EPC six drip and 30 sprinkler systems (73.67 hectare), that of Premier two drip systems, 12 sprinklers (22.74 hectare) and that of Parixit 6 drip systems (16.49 hectare).

The companies, Salam said, have been allotted a target of 4,000 hectares of sugarcane, 3,000 hectare of horticulture, 1,088 hectare of non-paddy crops and 90 hectare of sericulture for arranging drip-sprinkler systems.

He said the cost of erecting a drip equipment in a mango garden (10 metre x 10 metre) had been worked out at Rs 12,817.50, in sugarcane field and sericulture, banana and papaya gardens (0.09 metre x 0.06 metre) at Rs 56,269.21, for vegetable and flower gardens (0.06 metre x 0.6 metre x 0.45 metre) at Rs 79,401.71.

The cost of installing a sprinkler system was calculated at Rs 9,310.80. The government was implementing the Rs 1,200 crore ambitious scheme to provide drip and spinkler irrigation to 2.5 lakh hectare in just one year, Salam added.