PMSKY

Agriculture schemes are always required for two reasons. Firstly to maintain the agriculture growth and secondly to provide a consistent employment to the rural population . India is primarily an agricultural economy, because more than 50 percent of its population still involves itself in agriculture and allied activities. Further, agriculture contributes around 14% to GDP of India. With these facts, we can easily understand the importance of agriculture and its contribution to Indian economy. But, agriculture has largely stagnated and scope for expansion is limited, hence the focus should be on how to improve agricultural production and productivity. One such focus area is irrigation where state intervention is required, irrigation has direct bearing on improved production and productivity as our agriculture profile is largely monsoon dependent or rain fed. Realizing the same launch of PMKSY is a move in right direction. . , , ,........ The majorObjectivesof PMKSY are:- To attract investments in irrigation, Expand cultivable area under irrigation, Improve on-farm water use efficiency to reduce wastage of water, Enhance the adoption of precision-irrigation and other water saving technologies (More crop per drop), Enhance recharge of aquifers and introduce sustainable water conservation practices by exploring the feasibility of reusing treated municipal wastewater for peri-urban agriculture, and attract greater private investment in precision irrigation system. Under PMKSY the priority is accorded to conserving water, its management and also to expand the coverage of irrigation, which is aptly said as‘Har Khet Ko Pani’.Water use efficiency is also of particular focus of the scheme i.e. ‘More crop per drop’ Features I.PMKSY has merged a few already functioning schemes viz. Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP), Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) and the On Farm Water Management (OFWM). II.The nodal agencies for implementation of the scheme are Ministries of Agriculture, Water Resources and Rural Development dealing with their own sub-components. Like, Ministry of Rural Development is primarily concerned with rainwater conservation, construction of farm pond, water harvesting structures, small check dams and contour bunding etc. The Min of Water Resources will concern itself with measures for creation of irrigation sources. Like, construction of diversion canals, field channels, water diversion/lift irrigation, including development of water distribution systems. Ministry of Agriculture will promote water efficiency and precision farming devices like drips, sprinklers, pivots, rain-guns in the farm; it will also look after construction of micro-irrigation structures to supplement source creation activities. III.The execution of PMKSY will be done in a decentralized manner with State level planning and project specific implementation. Hence, state can draw their own plans, basing them upon District Irrigation Plan (DIP) and State Irrigation Plan (SIP), and also according to their needs. It will club all water sector related activities and provide a common platform, including drinking water & sanitation, MGNREGA etc. this all will done through a comprehensive plan. State Level Sanctioning Committee (SLSC) is vested with the power to oversee its implementation. IV.All States including North Eastern States and Union Territories are covered under the programme. V.At national level, this Yojana will be monitored by anInter-Ministerial National Steering Committee(NSC) constituted under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister with Union Ministers from concerned Ministries. To oversee programme implementation, allocation of resources, inter ministerial coordination, monitoring & performance assessment, addressing administrative issues etc. A National Executive Committee (NEC) will be constituted under the Chairmanship of Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog. Targets The PMKSY will start with investment of 5,300 Crores for this fiscal. The total outlay of Rs.50000 Crores is for a period of 5 years (2015-16 to 2019-20) and is to achieve convergence of investments in irrigation at the field level. Definitely, the outlay for this fiscal is not enough to cover the remaining 65% of rain fed area, but the government has targeted to: • Provide artificial irrigation facility to 6 lakh hectares of arable land, • Provide drip irrigation to 5 lakh hectares of arable land. With above two targets, the PMKSY will also focus on end-to-end irrigation and micro-irrigation as well. Apart from working on new irrigation facilities, the PMKSY also aims towards fixing the poorly implemented projects already in place. Thus, PMKSY will take control of these projects and: • Rework on them with strict guidelines of quality control. • Complete 1,300 incomplete watershed projects.