Ashwamedha – Ignite Irrigation

Submitted by

Aditi Agrawal

Indian institute of Management Lucknow

Let’s get our facts right …

• Major Irrigation (surface Water) : 38%

• Minor Irrigation (tanks, ground water etc.): 62%

• 70% of food grain production coming from irrigated agriculture

Then what’s the problem

• Dwindling water table

• Low productivity levels

• Not enough groundwater during drought years

• Most of the regions experience drought once in 5 years

• Free electricity (making farmers irresponsible –Punjab .. Though its not just about farmers, even here students waste lot of electricity as it is “free” with 24X7 supply)

Do we have any example to follow?

• Chauka System - Laporiya of Dudu block, Jaipur, Rajasthan

- Village Tank – Community based rain water harvesting

• Tanks in Southern States

- Fell out of favor because of high maintenance

requirements, corruption

The Idea

• Village Tank

- Degraded pasture areas (better if they are along strategic location - contour lines) to be dyked for storing rain water

- Building of channels for the water to flow from other areas to the catchment area

- Part of the water collected can be used for recharging the ground water

Business Model

• Building village tanks

- Executing the entire project for villagers for fee

• Tie – up with MFIs

- MFIs will provide funds to the villagers

• Providing technical know-how to the villagers

References

• http://www.sustainableinnovations.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=36

• http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/publications/data/2009-03-08Gandhi.pdf

• http://www.nourin.tsukuba.ac.jp/~tasae/2005/India.pdf• http://www.sandrp.in/irrigation/prfmnce_lrg_dams.pdf• http://www.iwmigiam.org/info/GMI-DOC/GIAM-India-

Stats.pdf• http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6VC6-

4SW8B1K-1/2/c45469f03e80935a84ffc166a6a04dd2• http://www.rainwaterharvesting.org/Rural/Improvised.htm