A National Workshop on “Per Drop More Crop (PDMC)” was organised by the Department of Agriculture& Farmers Welfare on Wednesday to discuss with the stakeholders the various approaches which can be adopted for increasing penetration of micro irrigation in the country.
Participants from various Ministries and Department of Central Government, States and UT’s, Irrigation Industries, Startups working in water management sector and Farmers Producer Organisations were present in the event.
Manoj Ahuja, Secretary, Ministry of agriculture emphasised on adoption of technologies in implementation of the programmes and focused approach for enhancing micro-irrigation coverage and thereby increasing overall efficiency and water productivity of agriculture for ensuring food and nutrition security of the country and incomes of the farmers, particularly in rainfed areas.
Dr. Himanshu Pathak, Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research & Education (DARE) also addressed the inaugural session. He urged all participants to make efforts for adoption of micro-irrigation on a large scale for reducing the water footprint of the agriculture sector.
During the programme, five Best Gram Panchayats from States of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu were recognised for their efforts in high micro-irrigation adoption and best practices in the water management sector. Besides, leading States in micro-irrigation shared the practices and innovative methods being followed in their States for enhancing the micro-irrigation coverage and their popularity among farmers.
