Question

Give a brief description of the means of irrigation in india?

Answer 1

Hint: Irrigation refers to the watering of land to make it ready for agriculture. It is the technique of applying water to the crops through artificial channels to grow them. India is an agricultural rich country. It has about 140 million hectares of net cultivated area, out of which 45% is irrigated.

Complete answer: -Irrigation also supplies water to the dry land as a supplementation of rain water for cultivation.

-According to 2008-09, the total irrigated land in India is about 631.96 lakh hectare, that is 61%.

- Irrigation in India is carried through wells, tanks, canals, Perennial canal, Multi-purpose river valley projects, etc. About one-third part of India is irrigated. There is a need for improvement of the means of irrigation for agriculture in India because of the tropical climate. The three major means of irrigation in India are;
- Canals: Most of the canals in India are perennial. The main canal irrigated areas are in the northern plains of India where Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Bihar which accounts for about 60 per cent of the canal irrigated area of the country.
-Wells and tube wells : Northern India primarily has very fertile, porous and soft soil, making it easier to dig up wells. Hence, well irrigation is popular here. Wells can be dug up using reasonable manual labour.
-Tanks : Tank irrigation is common in the peninsular plateau area where Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are the leading states. Andhra Pradesh is the largest state of tank irrigation and constitutes about 28.8 percent of tank irrigated area of India.
The highly effective methods of irrigation are;
- Sprinkler irrigation
- Drip irrigation
- Surface irrigation
- Basin irrigation
- Furrow irrigation

Note: Irrigation Planning in India by Planning Commission
-Major Irrigation Plan: It includes cultivating 10, 000 hectare or more area. Often large canals and multipurpose river valley projects are included in it.
- Medium Irrigation Plan: It includes cultivating 20, 000 hectare or more area but less than 10, 000 hectare.
- Minor Irrigation Plan:It includes cultivating less than 20,000 hectare of land.