Resource detail

The Karnataka government will take up at least 30,000 acres of sugarcane farming land under drip irrigation for a pilot project to highlight the advantages of the low water intensive agricultural practices in the backdrop of unreliable monsoon seasons and resulting droughts leading to increase in the gap between demand and supply of the precious resource. Karnataka, which accounts for 10% of the total sugarcane produce in the country, has about 1 million acres of sugarcane under cultivation, of which around 300,000 acres are canal irrigated. Reeling under its second consecutive drought year and resulting water shortages, the Karnataka government has been investing resources to reduce water consumption by the agricultural sector and promoting drought resistant alternatives like millets.