Critically examine the status of micro-irrigation under Per Drop More Crop and identify reasons for sub-optimal coverage in Indian agriculture.
Subtopic: Agriculture · Irrigation
How to structure your answer
Introduction: PMKSY-Per Drop More Crop covers 87.5 lakh hectares (MoAFW Dashboard Mar 2025); potential 70 million hectares; agriculture uses 78% of India's water (NITI Composite Water Management Index 2019).
Body: 1) Modes — drip and sprinkler, subsidies up to 55% for small farmers. 2) Constraints — fragmented holdings (avg 1.08 ha, Agricultural Census), credit access, free power-water nexus. 3) Micro Irrigation Fund under NABARD ₹5,000 crore corpus.
Way forward: Scale MIF Phase-II (₹5,000 cr top-up); link drip subsidy to crop diversification; integrate with PM-KUSUM solar pumps; expand Atal Bhujal Yojana behavioural piece.
Written within the word limit
134 words · target 150 words · 9 min
Introduction: The DA&FW reports that micro-irrigation coverage under Per Drop More Crop (PMKSY component) reached 91 lakh hectares by March 2025 — just 12% of India's 140 million-hectare net sown area.
Body: PDMC (₹19,000 crore under PMKSY-PDMC since 2015-16) promotes drip and sprinkler systems, lifting water-use efficiency to 80-90% versus flood-irrigation 35-40% (CWC 2023). It runs alongside the ₹5,000 crore Micro-Irrigation Fund at NABARD, with 50% Central subsidy for SMFs and 35% otherwise. AP, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra account for 70% of coverage. Sub-optimal coverage: (i) small holdings — 86% of farmers below 2 ha (Agricultural Census 2015-16) face ₹40,000-80,000/acre installation; (ii) free power and water disincentivise efficiency; (iii) emitter clogging needs extension; (iv) paddy-sugarcane cropping lock-in consumes 76% of irrigation water.
Way forward: The Department of Agriculture should converge PMKSY-PDMC with Atal Bhujal Yojana (₹6,000 crore, 8,213 GPs) and link PMKSY 2.0 (FY26-30) to 1.5 crore-hectare coverage.
What an examiner expects to see
- Per Drop More Crop coverage 87.5 lakh ha (MoAFW Mar 2025)
- Potential micro-irrigation area 70 million ha
- Agriculture share of water 78% (NITI CWMI)
- Micro Irrigation Fund (NABARD) ₹5,000 crore
- Small farmer subsidy 55%
- PM-KUSUM solar pump targets 35 lakh
Concrete cases, schemes and judgments
- Gujarat drip irrigation success
- Andhra Pradesh micro-irrigation
- Maharashtra Jalyukt Shivar
- Atal Bhujal Yojana 7 states