NDCWWC Journal

India has about 48.8 percent of irrigated area of the total 140 Mha of agricultural land in the country, that includes a network of main canals, branch canals, distributaries, minors and water courses from SW projects, groundwater-based systems, tanks, and other rainwater harvesting projects for agricultural activities.India has so far achieved an irrigation potential of 89.4 Mha against the ultimate irrigation potential of 139.5 Mha. A key constraint in bridging this gap are the incomplete major/medium irrigation projects that can create additional irrigation potential in the country but have been abandoned at an advanced stage or delayed due to resource constraints faced by the State Governments. To tackle this-problem, Government of India came up with the Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP) that was launched during 1996-1997 for providing financial assistance to the States, to help them expedite completion of ongoing Major/Medium Irrigation (MMI) including Extension, Renovation, and Modernization (ERM) of irrigation projects and Surface Minor Irrigation schemes, as well as Lift Irrigation Schemes(LIS). In 2015-16 another scheme called Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) was launched in which 99 irrigation/multipurpose projects out of 297 AIBP projects were included for funding under it. Twenty-five States got benefitted from the programme. This paper attempts at assessing-irrigation potential created under AIBP using Satellite imageries in 15 major/medium irrigation projects located in 6 States namely Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh. Satellite Remote Sensing provides a means of observing and quantifying total area under cultivation using pre-project and post-project satellite imageries. It has been observed that considerable irrigation potential has been created under AIBP in these command areas, some of the projects have achieved their target irrigation potential, while others have shown increase in area under crop that-range from 278 ha to 123.20 Kha.