Mission Kakatiya cuts fertiliser user

Hyderabad: There was a 51.5 per cent increase in gross area irrigated under tank irrigation after renovation of tanks under Mission Kakatiya Phase-1 works.

One of the flagship schemes of the TRS government, Mission Kakatiya which was aimed at restoring of minor irrigation tanks, has proved to be of immense help to farmers, according to an impact assessment  study undertaken by Nabard Consultancy Services (Nabcons). Irrigation minister T. Harish Rao released the report to the media on Sunday.

The Nabcons study estimated that the gross irrigated area under minor irrigation sources was 10.53 lakh acres and would  increase to 15.5 lakh acres after implementation of all phases of Mission Kakatiya. The gap command area also dropped to 19.2 per cent from 42.4 per cent after implementation.

Nabcons had selected 400 tanks of different sizes, taken up under phase I, from the four composite districts of Adilabad, Karimnagar, Medak and Nalgonda. The districts were selected as they covered all the four agro climatic zones in the state.

Mission Kakatiya was aimed at restoring all the 46,531 minor irrigation tanks which provide irrigation to about 25 lakh acres. Mission Kakatiya is being implemented in phases over five years, covering 20 per cent of tanks each year. The programme was launched on March 12, 2015. Under the first phase, work on 8,022 tanks was completed.

Application of the tank silt in farms has fetched benefits for the farmers and resulted in significant reduction in expenditure on fertilisers.

The impact assessment survey showed a decrease in consumption of chemical fertilisers by up to 50 per cent which helped in cutting expenditure on fertilisers by 27.6 per cent over the base year. Besides, the average rise in groundwater level was 6.91 metres which improved to 9.02 metres in 2016.