PIB TrackerTwenty years of micro-irrigation cover 8.11% of the net sown area
Per Drop More Crop has brought 115 lakh hectares under drip and sprinkler systems since 2006, and revised guidelines now let states spend without a ceiling on farm ponds and water harvesting.
What happened
- Per Drop More Crop has covered 115 lakh hectares as of July 2026, about 8.11 per cent of the net sown area.
- Over 80 per cent of available water is used for irrigation while only about 50 per cent of the net sown area has irrigation facilities.
- Assistance covers up to five hectares per beneficiary at 55 per cent for small and marginal farmers and 45 per cent for others.
- ₹8,123.24 crore has been released in three years, with ₹3,226.36 crore for this component within PM-RKVY in 2025-26.
- States may now exceed the earlier 20 per cent ceiling — 40 per cent for hill states — on water storage and harvesting works.
For Prelims
- PDMC: a centrally sponsored micro-irrigation component, under PM-RKVY since 2022-23, covering 115 lakh hectares as of July 2026.
- Lineage: a centrally sponsored scheme on micro irrigation in January 2006, the National Mission on Micro Irrigation in 2010-11, the NMSA On Farm Water Management component in 2014-15, then PDMC under PMKSY from 2015-16.
- Assistance: up to five hectares per beneficiary, 55 per cent for small and marginal farmers and 45 per cent for others, available again after seven years.
- Fertigation: applying fertiliser along with irrigation water directly into the root zone, promoted under the scheme.
- Drip types: on-line drippers placed wherever a plant stands, suiting uneven spacing, and in-line drippers built into the pipe at fixed intervals.
- Sprinklers: portable, micro, mini, semi-permanent and rain-guns discharging 10,000 to 32,000 litres per hour over a throw of 24 to 36 metres.
- Institutions: the National Stewardship Council nationally, with the State Level Sanctioning Committee, Inter-Departmental Working Group and District Level Implementation Committee in the states.
- Evidence: the Economic Survey 2020-21 recorded water savings of 20 to 48 per cent, fertiliser savings of 11 to 19 per cent and yield gains of 20 to 38 per cent.
For UPSC: The standing example for water use efficiency in agriculture and for the distance between a scheme's evidence base and its coverage. Use it on groundwater stress, irrigation reform, and on how sequencing — storage before delivery — decides whether a technology scheme works.
What it is NOT: Coverage of 115 lakh hectares is not 115 lakh hectares of water saved — it is the area on which systems have been installed since 2006, about 8.11 per cent of the net sown area.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS3.4 · GS3.14 · Linkage L2
Anchor
Twenty years of a scheme built to fix the largest single use of India's water have reached 8.11 per cent of the net sown area.
Substantiation (data)
115 lakh hectares by July 2026; ₹8,123.24 crore released over three years and ₹3,226.36 crore in 2025-26; 12.30 lakh farmers reached in 2025-26, about a fifth of them women.
Exemplification
LAM Srinivasa Rao's two-acre acid lime orchard in Palnadu, Andhra Pradesh: yield up from 90 to 105 quintals an acre, cultivation cost down from ₹3 lakh to ₹2.4 lakh, net income up from ₹1.5 lakh to ₹2.85 lakh.
Problematisation
Six states account for the largest areas covered, so a scheme meant to prioritise water-scarce and groundwater-stressed regions is concentrated where irrigation markets already exist.
Way-forward
Lifting the ceiling on diggis and farm ponds is the sequencing correction — a drip system needs an assured source of water before it needs a subsidy.
Position
The scheme's own evidence is strong — 20 to 48 per cent water savings, 10 to 69 per cent income gains — so the binding constraint is not proof but reach: five hectares per beneficiary, repeatable after seven years, is a slow instrument for the remaining 92 per cent of the cropped area.
Deploys into: Agriculture and irrigation + conservation (GS3.4, GS3.14) · water use efficiency, micro-irrigation subsidy design and groundwater stress.
PIB Backgrounder · 2026-08-29 · PRID 2304480 · PIB source ↗