Revision summary
Water-use efficiency is crop output or income per unit of water applied or consumed. Surface irrigation loses much water to evaporation, seepage and percolation. Drip and sprinkler put water in the root zone and allow fertigation, raising yield per drop and often cutting pump hours. Limits are capital cost, clogging and the risk of expanding thirsty crops. PMKSY (2015) and Per Drop More Crop subsidise micro-irrigation as the national programme.
Model answer
Introduction
Water-use efficiency in farming is the useful crop output (or income) obtained per unit of water applied or consumed. Indian irrigation is still dominated by flood and furrow methods that lose water to evaporation, seepage and deep percolation. Micro-irrigation — drip and sprinkler — puts water (and often fertiliser) in the root zone. That is the practical route to more crop per drop.
Body
What water-use efficiency means
- Agronomic efficiency is yield per cubic metre of irrigation water; economic efficiency is rupees of produce per unit of water.
- Basin efficiency also counts return flows reused downstream; on-farm efficiency is what the farmer controls at the plot.
- India's challenge is low on-farm efficiency in rice-wheat and sugarcane belts, falling groundwater, and climate-unreliable monsoon.
- Efficiency is not only hardware. It needs scheduling, crop choice, lining of canals, and pricing or community rules that discourage waste.
Role of micro-irrigation
- Drip irrigation delivers water in drops to the root zone through emitters. It cuts evaporation and wetting of unproductive soil, and it suits horticulture, cotton, sugarcane and vegetables.
- Sprinklers spray water like rain. They suit cereals, pulses and fodder on undulating land where drip laterals are costly.
- Both methods raise application efficiency well above typical surface irrigation, so the same reservoir or tube-well serves more area or the same area with less pumping.
- Fertigation with drip places nutrients with water, raising fertiliser-use efficiency and cutting leaching into groundwater.
- Less waterlogging and soil crusting improve root health and quality of produce, which matters for export horticulture.
- Energy use per kilogram can fall because pumps run fewer hours, which also eases the power-subsidy burden of States.
- Limits: high capital cost, clogging in saline or dirty water, need for filters and farmer training, and weak results if farmers still grow water-guzzling crops on a larger command.
Policy support
- Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY, 2015) unifies irrigation efforts with the motto Har Khet Ko Pani and Per Drop More Crop.
- The Per Drop More Crop component subsidises micro-irrigation systems, often with State top-up, and links them to water-user groups.
- National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture and earlier National Mission on Micro Irrigation laid the subsidy path that PMKSY absorbed.
- Efficiency also needs participatory irrigation management, canal lining, and crop diversification away from paddy in severely over-exploited blocks.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD W[Irrigation water] --> F[Flood furrow losses] W --> M[Micro irrigation drip sprinkler] M --> E[Higher water-use efficiency] M --> G[Fertigation less pumping] P[PMKSY Per Drop More Crop] --> M E --> Y[More crop per drop]
Conclusion
Water-use efficiency is more yield and income from each unit of water. Drip and sprinkler raise that efficiency by cutting non-beneficial losses and enabling fertigation. PMKSY's Per Drop More Crop is the Union vehicle; it works when hardware comes with training, maintenance and sensible crop choice.
Quick related
Students also ask
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What is allelopathy? Discuss its role in major cropping systems of irrigated agriculture.
Next question in the 2016 paper (Q8). View answer →
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Does micro-irrigation always save river or aquifer water at basin scale?
On-farm losses fall, but if farmers expand area or thirsty crops, basin savings can be smaller. Crop choice still matters.
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Is canal irrigation outdated once drip exists?
No. Canals still fill ponds and aquifers. Micro-irrigation is the on-farm application method that makes that water go further.
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