Irrigation

Featured Articles
August 10, 2022
Taming water - Irrigation and drought protection in colonial India and the present
The irrigation at all costs mindset and narrow policies for drought protection during the colonial rule ignored rainfed agriculture and local practices that sustained agriculture in the Bombay Deccan. This continues even today.
Recurrent droughts and the struggle for survival (Image Source: Gaurav Bhosale via Wikimedia Commons):
August 9, 2022
MGNREGS becoming the quintessential scheme for tribal agriculture
Ensuring irrigation through farm ponds in tribal Chhattisgarh
Many tribal farmers opted for individual farm ponds under MGNREGA ensuring protective irrigation. (Image: Meenakshi Singh)
April 8, 2022
Water for all, still a dream?
Lack of governance and six toothless irrigation acts have done very little to change the water situation on the ground in Maharashtra, argues water expert Pradeep Purandare.
Peanut irrigation in India (Image Source: Seratobikiba via Wikimedia Commons)
March 11, 2022
Making every drop count: Micro-irrigation for tribal farmers of Gujarat
Subsidies enable tribal farmers to adopt micro-irrigation systems providing them assured irrigation
A key mitigation strategy to deal with water scarcity due to climate change is on-farm management of water using techniques like micro-irrigation (Image: India Water Portal Flickr)
September 17, 2021
Villagers’ shramdaan revives canal, enhances area under cultivation
Benefits of well-managed commons on livelihoods
Collective efforts revived the canal structure of Bichhiya dam bringing water to the village (Image: Foundation for Ecological Security)
August 29, 2021
Diversion-based irrigation systems
Experience of Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India) in revitalizing the traditional phad irrigation system in hilly tribal villages of Western Madhya Pradesh
Community members contribute voluntary labour required for laying the pipeline network and tank construction (Image: Anjali Aggarwal)
Alternative farming method in Karnal
No-till agriculture, an alternative farming method, which helps prevent soil depletion as well as uses water efficiently, is being used successfully by farmers in Haryana.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 05 Apr, 2014 01:24 PM

Kalwaheri is a village of over thousand households comprising mostly of small farmers and landless people tucked away in Karnal, Haryana. The district, once the birth place of the Green Revolution, is now far from green.
Seed-fertilizer drill in use at Kalwaheri village
Maharashtra reels under hail storms and unseasonal rainfall
News this month: Maharashtra faces the impact of climate change; Developing El Nino raises fear of a weak Indian monsoon; India's water crisis to worsen in the coming years, says UN.
Swati Bansal
Posted on 31 Mar, 2014 11:23 PM

Maharashtra reels under hail storms
Unseasonal rainfall in Mumbai (Source: Wikipedia)
Abolish manual scavenging: SC
Policy matters this month: SC directs all states to abolish manual scavenging; MoEF reduces ESA in its new draft notification on Western Ghats; Maharashtra all set to clean its rivers.
Swati Bansal
Posted on 31 Mar, 2014 11:14 PM

Abolish manual scavenging: SC
A manual scavenger in Chennai (Namathu Blogspot)
The water-energy nexus
Meerut celebrated World Water Day with speakers talking about the connection between the two topics.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 31 Mar, 2014 10:20 PM

The theme of this year’s World Water Day was “energy-water nexus”. It was almost as if the topic was chosen keeping Western Uttar Pradesh in mind because the conflict between water and energy users in agriculture and industry has heightened here in the recent past.
Rise of tubewells in western UP (Source: DTE)
And the 2014 UN ‘Water for Life’ award goes to …
... IWMI-Tata Water Policy Program, a project that focuses on water and energy, and throws light on how the fortunes of groundwater and energy economies are intertwined.
Shilp Verma
Posted on 31 Mar, 2014 09:52 PM

IWMI-Tata Water Policy Program (ITP), a project that focusses on policy research in the co-management of energy & groundwater, has been awarded the 2014 UN ‘Water for life’ award!
Project leader Tushaar Shah with the award
Fatehabad - Another Fukushima?
Nuclear plants are usually located near oceans or rivers in order to have access to ample water for cooling but not the plant at Fatehabad. It is India's largest and could be its most dangerous too.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 25 Mar, 2014 08:14 PM

National Highway 10 passes through Badophal, a village in Fatehabad district of Haryana. The highway is lined by a tiny market and a point where several jeeps start and terminate. These jeeps are headed to Gorakhpur village, some 15 kms away via Kajal Heri, another village en route.
Gorakhpur nuclear power plant site
A village becomes water secure
Implementing rooftop rainwater harvesting, treating the catchment and building a community water tank are some reasons why Patkhori village is starting to sail through its water crisis.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 23 Mar, 2014 10:12 PM

Mewat, a historical region comprising of the present Mewat district of Haryana and parts of Alwar, Bharatpur and Dholpur districts of Rajasthan, lies in a semi-arid belt. It experiences variable rainfall annually and receives, on average, 336 mm to 540 mm, as per the Mewat Development Agency.
Water scarcity in Mewat
Submissions invited for 'Compendium on Innovations and Best Practices in Managing Water for Sustainable Water Supply, Sanitation and Irrigation Services', SuGWM and Vrutti
Selected innovations and best practices on managing water for sustainable water supply, sanitation and irrigation services across India will be bought out as an compendium for wider dissemination.
Posted on 21 Mar, 2014 02:55 PM

Sustainable Ground Water Management (SuGWM) & Vrutti are inviting 'Innovations and Best practices in Managing Water for Sustainable Water Supply, Sanitation and Irrigation Services'.
A multi-pronged approach to improve livelihoods in MP
Out-migration of residents and inefficient agricultural practices in Baldeogarh, MP have been partially resolved by an NGO's intervention, which focused on conserving water.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 17 Mar, 2014 03:46 PM

A little less than 40 km away from the district headquarters of Tikamgarh in northern Madhya Pradesh lies a watershed, which is an area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place (US Environmental Protection Agency).
Farmer looks at the water conservation efforts
It takes more than money to make a difference
Eris' and 'ooranis', which are tanks that supplied water for generations in Tamil Nadu, are being revived thanks to monetary donations, good management practices and community participation.
Seetha Gopalakrishnan
Posted on 16 Mar, 2014 10:28 PM

Tamilnadu has a rich tradition of tank management at the village level. Every village had one or more irrigation tanks, locally known as ‘kanmais’ or ‘eris’, and a drinking water tank called ‘ooranis’. This system worked for centuries with the support of residents and the local administration.
View of a 'Kanmai' in Madurai
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