ENERGY AND WATER CONSERVATION STRATEGIES IN IRRIGATED AGRICULTURE

Abstract

Conservation of Energy and Water will ploy a crucial role in achieving the capacity utilization of the many large medium and small irrigation systems in India. Till the end of the Fifth Five Year Plans irrigation potential created was of the order of 52.3 million hectares comprising of surface and sub-surface sources, During this period9 diesel run and electrically operated irrigation pumpsets amounted over 3,5 million, Efficiency of majority of the projects is reported to be very low, so also that of the pumping plants. If the efficiency improvement of the order of 10 15 percent can be effected the potential benefit is enor-mous, Efficiency improvement of the systems is but only one of the :,,any potential .areas of conservation. Hence there is vast scope for energy and water conservation in irrigated agriculture.