Lift Irrigation Boosts Crop Yield and Income for Farmers

The success of farming depends to a great extent on the availability of the right means of irrigation. In our country, even today, many farmers are dependent on rain for water, in such a situation they have to suffer losses due to irregular rainfall. Lift irrigation technology is considered beneficial for such areas.

There are many modern methods of irrigation, one of which is the lift-irrigation system. It is very useful for those areas where rain is not regular. Also, the land is not flat, it is uneven and the water sources are very low from the field. In such areas, lift irrigation technology reduces dependence on rain and good farming can be done throughout the year.

Not only this, proper irrigation also improves the yield of crops, which increases the income of farmers. The most special thing about lift irrigation technology is that with its help, farmers can easily prepare two or three crops in a year. Lift irrigation method has changed the fortunes of the farmers of Mangobandh, a village in Ranchi district of Jharkhand.

What is lift irrigation technology?

This is a new irrigation technique in which instead of taking water through natural flow by gravity, water from a river or canal is taken up with the help of pumps or other equipment.

Grow more than one crop

About 40 percent of the cultivable land in Mangobandh village of Ranchi district was cultivated with a single variety of paddy. In the winter season, farmers used to cultivate potatoes, tomatoes, onions, chillies etc. on only 5 percent of the land, apart from this some other crops were also grown in very small quantities. But scientists changed the picture of this area.

In the year 2011-2013, ICAR-Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums, Ranchi planted plum trees in this village under the promotion programs of lac production. After this, the scientists also visited the village, from which they came to know that due to water shortage, the farmers were not able to cultivate many other crops.

Use of lift irrigation technique

Lift irrigation technique was used to solve this problem. In fact, with the help of Soil Conservation Directorate, Jharkhand, two wells (depth 10 feet and diameter 8 feet) and two pump houses were built in the area. 5000 feet of PVC pipe of 110 mm diameter was laid underground in about 30 hectares of command area. Two pumps of 8 horsepower capacity were installed, so that large areas could be irrigated easily, especially in the winter season.

About 35 farmer families benefited from this. Water from the village’s seasonal river Jiligsereng was used for lift irrigation. In fact, this river becomes very wide during the rainy season and after February-March the water in it starts decreasing. In such a situation, when there is more water, it was planned to collect it and use it in agricultural work. After adopting the lift irrigation method, the farmers here, who earlier could only cultivate paddy, are now able to grow vegetables like potatoes, tomatoes, onions, chillies, garlic, brinjal, peas, cabbage very easily, because now they do not have to face water shortage.

Help in lac cultivation

Prakash Sanga, a farmer of Mangoband village, planted 2000 plants of semialata for lac production in his 1500 square meter field. He also cultivated papaya, tomato, brinjal, ladyfinger and chilli, due to which he got a crop of 2639 kg tomato, 670 kg brinjal, 90 kg chilli and 60 kg ladyfinger in the year 2013. With the help of lift irrigation technique, there was a good production of semialata and papaya. Encouraged by this success, Prakash Sanga increased the number of 2000 semialata trees to 5,000. Not only this, 5 farmers of this village started integrated farming of lac on more than 7,000 trees.

The foundation stone of the Mega Lift Irrigation Scheme was laid in October 2023 in Siktia village of Deoghar district, which will enable farmers of 27 panchayats to get water for irrigation throughout the year, meaning crops will flourish here throughout the year.