The Hindu Business Line : `Farming hit due to neglect of water bodies'

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Coimbatore Feb. 8 Poor maintenance of irrigation bodies such as anicuts, canals and tanks has led to a decline in the extent irrigated by them.

Out of 39,200 irrigation tanks in Tamil Nadu, about 1,000 tanks have become totally defunct, resulting in the loss of about 50,000 hectares of tank-irrigated area, the Tamil Nadu Agriculture Minister, Mr Veerapandi S. Arumugam, informed the international groundwater conference here on Wednesday.

As for well water irrigation supplementing tank and canal water supplies, the Minister said that of the 19 lakh wells in the State about 8 per cent of the wells were not in use.

This apart, the average area of irrigation per well too came down from five acres during 1970 to just one acre in recent years.

He said a thrust on standardisation and maintenance of tanks was required. Groundwater management strategies such as investment on groundwater recharge mechanism to create percolation ponds, farm ponds and watershed development would gain importance.

More Stories on : Water | Cultivation | Tamil Nadu

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