The challenge is to shift groundwater governance such that aquifer-based practice gets mainstreamed. The agriculture ministry has drawn plans to dovetail the recently launched Rs 50,000 crore Prime Minister Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) for providing irrigation to each cultivated field with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to ensure smooth availability of labour. However, it has paid little attention to groundwater which will be the primary source for providing ‘har khet ko pani’ (water for every field) across 129 million hectares of non-irrigated arable land in the country. Despite massive investments in the irrigation sector during the five-year...
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