Mission Kakatiya, the water tank revival programme started by the Telangana government, has resulted in an increase in the gross area irrigated under tank ayacut.

“There has been an increase in the yields of paddy, cotton and sorghum. The household agricultural income has also increased 78.50 per cent in the tank ayacut area.

“The reason for the surge can be attributed to the increase in irrigated area and also the yields,” said a report by Nabard Consultancy Services (Nabcons), the consultancy arm of Nabard. The intensity of irrigation (percentage of irrigated area to the net sown area) has risen 45.6 per cent over the base year.

“The irrigation intensity has gone up from 88.40 per cent in 2013-14 to 134 per cent,” the report said.

Nabcons said it had selected 400 tanks in the (undivided) districts of Adilabad, Karimnagar, Medak and Nalgonda, covering all the agro-climatic zones in the State.

Telangana Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao released the report here on Sunday.

Good rainfall “With more availability of water in tanks, the area under paddy has substantially increased from 49.20 per cent in the base year to 62.10 per cent in the assessment year, despite the fact that there was good rainfall in the base year,” the report said.

“The increase is mainly due to the increased water storage and retention capacity in the tanks after the tank renovation programme.

“The area under cotton has come down from 36.2 per cent to 26.3 per cent. Farmers preferred to grow paddy instead of cotton as sufficient water is available in the tanks,” it said.

Groundwater level As it helped in reviving the tanks, the programme also helped in increasing the groundwater level.

“In the base year, the average rise in groundwater level was 6.91 metres whereas it was 9.02 metres in 2016,” it claimed.

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