Irrigation Potential of India

Please read this article for updated information on Irrigation Potential of India. 

In all the five year plans considerable importance has been given to the creation of additional irrigation potential in the country. When five year planning started in our country, the irrigation potential was 23 million hectares which included 10 million hectares from major and medium irrigation works and 13 million hectares from the minor irrigation works.

The ultimate irrigation potential for the country has been assessed to be about 139.9 million hectare. As per the available information, about 105.8 Mha of irrigation potential has been created so far (January 22, 2010, PIB).

Total area under irrigation varies from year to year. As per the Land Use Statistics of Ministry of Agriculture, gross irrigated area and net irrigated area during 2006-07 have been estimated to be 85.8 Mha and 60.9 Mha respectively.

Total irrigation potential created during 2005-09 is 6.71 Mha. The Maximum Irrigation Potential was created for Uttar Pradesh. The following Table makes it clear.

Irrigation Potential Created 2005-09
Sl. No.

Name of State

Total

1Andhra Pradesh

799.262

2Arunachal Pradesh

19.051

3Assam

57.777

4Bihar

526.751

5Chhattisgarh

167.446

6Goa

12.581

7Gujarat

505.456

8Haryana

64.411

9Himachal Pradesh

19.555

10Jammu &Kashmir

60.357

11Jharkhand

83.899

12Karnataka

311.390

13Kerala

34.514

14Madhya Pradesh

311.100

15Maharashtra

637.200

16Manipur

12.000

17Meghalaya

10.269

18Mizoram

7.294

19Nagaland

12.715

20Orissa

237.575

21Punjab

137.498

22Rajasthan

424.640

23Sikkim

3.891

24Tamil nadu

225.124

25Tripura

11.749

26Uttar Pradesh

1888.216

27Uttaranchal

100.736

28West Bengal

28.971

 TOTAL

6711.428

Source: Ministry of Ag. Values Thousand Hectares

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