By IANS
Mumbai : Expressing concern at the small size of crop area under irrigation and incomplete irrigation projects in Maharashtra, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday urged the state government to start thinking about how to generate the money needed to complete the projects.
A sum of Rs.400 billion (Rs.40,000 crore) would be needed to complete the projects to provide relief to farmers, he said.
“Only 16 percent of the crop area in Maharashtra is irrigated. There is a major overhang of incomplete irrigation projects requiring over Rs.40,000 crores to complete them. However, the actual irrigation potential added in the last decade is not large,” Singh said at a meeting held in Mumbai to review the spate of farmers’ suicides in the Vidarbha region.
Singh said the state needed to see how funds could be generated to complete the projects. “Therefore, the state needs to approach this problem in a creative manner so that the irrigation potential is fully utilised, but at a reasonable cost,” he said.
Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar were present at the meeting held at the Sahyadri Guest House at Malabar Hill in south Mumbai.
The prime minister also questioned the viability of mass-scale cotton growing in the state.
“Maharashtra is an important cotton producer. With 33 percent of the area under cotton in the country, it produces only 17 percent of the cotton crop. This is a point to reflect on. This is also a guide to the causes of distress in cotton areas. And only 4 percent of the cotton area is irrigated. Should the state be cultivating cotton on such a scale?” asked the prime minister.
He pointed out that the renewed thrust to horticulture was paying dividends. However, while this is good where horticulture is possible, appropriate horticultural strategies would be needed for rain-fed areas.
Singh said western Maharashtra has a distinct agricultural profile with a high intensity of irrigation. Konkan is a high rainfall area with quick runoff. However, Vidarbha, Khandesh and Marathwada are mainly rain-fed areas with limited irrigation potential.
“Differentiated agricultural strategies are needed for each region. Focus needs to be on providing life saving or fallback irrigation and on other income generating activities such as animal husbandry. Improvements in agriculture should be visible across all regions,” he pointed out.
He said that an important decision arrived at the last meeting of the National Development Council was to move to district and state -specific action programmes to bridge yield gaps and increase productivity of all agricultural and related activities.
“A new Additional Central Assistance for agriculture amounting to Rs.250 billion (Rs.25,000 crores) was also announced for supporting these plans,” he said.