Assessment of agricultural pumping systems in Chhattisgarh state

Abstract

Chhattisgarh state has good potential of extracting ground water for irrigation. The districts of Raipur, Bilaspur, Mahasamund, Raigarh, Rajanandgaon and Jagadalpur were selected to study the performance and problems associated with pumping system adopted by the framers. The pump sets were selected randomly in different villages. It was found that, power range of both electric and diesel engine driven pump sets varied from 3 to 7.5 hp. Farmers were also found using low lift manually operated hang pumps to lift groundwater from shallow depth. The survey revealed that, the well water utilization was maximum (67 per cent) in the category of larger farmers and minimum (27 per cent) for marginal farmers. It indicates knowledge gap among the farmers about the utility of pump sets in accordance with the crop water requirement and area to be irrigated. It was also observed that the pump sets used by the small and the marginal fanners were of low operational efficiency ranging from 6 to 37 per cent as compared to large farmers who had adopted more efficient pumping system.