IRRIGATION IN INDIA

IRRIGATION IN INDIA India requires irrigation to offset the variability and unequal distribution of rainfall, meet crop and soil requirements, increase production by facilitating double cropping, and promote high-yielding varieties which require water, and ensure optimum use of river water resources.

Irrigation works are classified as:
Major Irrigation: Culturable command area (CCA) more than 10,000 hectares.
Medium Irrigation: Culturable command area more than 2,000 hectares but less than 10,000 hectares.
Minor Irrigation: Culturable command area of not more than 2,000 hectares.
Whereas major and medium irrigation works are meant for tapping surface water (e.g., rivers), minor irrigation mainly involves groundwater development, e.g., tubewell, boring works, etc.

Seen in the light of irrigation intensity, the following spatial pattern emerges.
States with net irrigated area as 60 per cent or above of the net sown area These are Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, the Krishna-Godavari delta and the Cauvery delta continuing upto Chennai. These are the areas of Green Revolution.
States with net irrigated area as 30 per cent to 60 per cent of the net sown area These regions include the rest of the Ganga plains, the Kashmir valley, parts of western Maharashtra, the east coast including West Bengal.

States with net irrigated area as below 15 per cent of the net sown area These regions include the west coast: the whole of the interior peninsula, southem Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, interior Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, the plains of Rajasthan and Gujarat, and the North-East.

Thus, there is inadequate irrigation in the arid and semi-arid regions and in the high rainfall regions of the North-East.