'Drip irrigation can help conserve water'

Surat: The Saurashtra Jal Dhara Trust president Mathur Savani has urged central and state governments to vigorously take up drip irrigation across the country to conserve water.
Mathur Savani, a diamantaire hailing from Kobana village of Gadhada taluka of Bhavnagar district, is the founder of Saurashtra Jaldhara Trust. He has done lot of work to create awareness regarding water conservation in the parched areas of Saurasthra and has been awarded Padma Shri by the Government of India.
Savani migrated to Surat in 1975 and started working as a diamond worker in Gopipura before setting up his own unit.Looking at water shortage in Saurashtra in 1998, he set out to create awareness on water conservation in the region. He took up two padyatras covering the entire Saurashtra and constructed hundreds of checkdams to conserve water.
In a letter to the central and state governments, Savani stated that the country has 30 crore hectare of arable land and less than 1% of it is under drip irrigation system. If farmers adopt micro irrigation method of drip irrigation, then 25% of total water stored in the dams will be sufficient to irrigate the fields. The remaining water can be stored in underground tanks or in new reservoirs.
Savani said there is 96 lakh hectare of arable land in Gujarat. At present, drip irrigation is being practised in 11.55 lakh hectare land only. The coverage of area under drip irrigation is not much.