Micro Irrigation Fund

The Union Government created ‘Micro Irrigation Fund’ with a corpus of Rs.5000 crore with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) from 2019-20. The objective of the fund is to facilitate State Governments efforts to mobilise additional resources for expanding coverage under micro irrigation.

Key Points

  • The Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW) has been designated as the Nodal Ministry.
  • The state governments can access the MIF to incentivise micro -irrigation through an additional subsidy over and above the one available under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana-Per Drop More Crop (PMKSY- PDMC).
  • The Government has set a target of covering 100 lakh hectares of area under micro-irrigation in five years.
  • As of September 2020, projects worth Rs. 3805.67 crore for covering 12.53 lakh hectares have been sanctioned under Micro Irrigation Fund.

Government gives nod for subsidised loans for micro-irrigation projects

Recently, the government has given its approval for subsidized loans of Rs 3,971.31 crore for micro-irrigation projects. The maximum loan approval of Rs 1,357.93 crore has been done for Tamil Nadu. It is followed by Haryana with an approval of subsidized loans worth Rs 790.94 crore. As of now, NABARD has released a total loan of Rs 1,754.60 crore to the states.

Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana

The main aim of PMKSY attract investments in irrigation, expand cultivable area under irrigation, enhance the adoption of water saving technologies (More crop per drop), improve on-farm water use efficiency, attract greater private investment in precision irrigation system, etc. The scheme has been approved Rs 50000 for 5 years (2015 to 2020). The scheme was formed by merging other schemes- Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP), Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP), the On Farm Water Management (OFWM) and River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation.

Recently, Karnataka state government has approved Maski Nala Irrigation Project.

Current Affairs