The Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare on Wednesday said that the annual allotment of Rs 4,000 crore has been made to the state governments under "Per Drop More Crop" component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana.
"For the current year, annual allotment of Rs 4,000 crore has already been allocated and conveyed to the State Governments. The State Governments have identified the beneficiaries to be covered under the programme," the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare said in a statement.
The ministry said that the fund release to some of the states is already under process for the year 2020-21.
"Department of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers' Welfare is implementing Per Drop More Crop component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY- PDMC). The PMKSY- PDMC focuses on enhancing water use efficiency at the farm level through Micro Irrigation technologies -- Drip and Sprinkler irrigation systems," the statement said.
"Drip micro-irrigation technique not only helps in water-saving but also in reducing fertiliser usage, labour expenses, and other input costs," it added.
It said that the Micro Irrigation Fund corpus of Rs 5,000 crore has been created with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.
"The objective of the fund is to facilitate the states in mobilising the resources for expanding coverage of Micro Irrigation by taking up special and innovative projects and also for incentivising micro-irrigation beyond the provisions available under PMKSY-PDMC to encourage farmers to install micro-irrigation systems," the statement said.
The micro-irrigation funds have been released to the states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu for Rs 616.14 crore and for Rs 478.79 crore, respectively through NABARD.
( With inputs from ANI )