“Providing real-time actionable advice on irrigation is crucial for farmers”
Headquartered in Israel, Rivulis has a strong global presence, including 16 manufacturing facilities, 2,000 employees, 3 R&D centres (in Israel, Greece and California) and multiple Design Centres. The company works with over 3,300 partners worldwide to provide full turnkey micro-irrigation solutions for grower’s needs, right from the individual grower to large corporate plantations in the agriculture, horticulture, greenhouse and mining industries. Rivulis has a rich history in the irrigation industry with more than 50 years of expertise developing, manufacturing and deploying micro-irrigation products and solutions. Kaushal Jaiswal, Managing Director, Rivulis Irrigation India speaks with Agrospectrum about the current status of agriculture irrigation in India and the available smart technologies for irrigation. Edited excerpts;
What is the status of agriculture irrigation in India?
Irrigation is the main consumer of fresh water in India, about 85 per cent of freshwater consumption in India happens in agriculture. India shares 17 per cent of the global population, 2.4 per cent of landmass and 4 per cent of the freshwater resource. Irrigation in India is mainly dependent upon major and minor canals, groundwater extraction, tanks and rainwater harvesting.
About 65 per cent of India’s irrigation is from groundwater. This over-extraction of groundwater has led to the depletion of the water table in 64 per cent of districts all across the country.
In the context of the rapid depletion of water resources, there is a need to increase water use efficiency. Efficient methods like micro-irrigation can play pivotal roles in the management of irrigation water demand. Drip and sprinkler irrigation systems have irrigation efficiency of about 90 per cent and 70 per cent respectively compared to surface irrigation methods which have just about 40 per cent efficiency.
Out of the net cropped area of approximately 141 million hectares, only 12 million hectares is covered through micro-irrigation which is 9 per cent of the cropped area.
What is the contribution of Rivulis’ precision agriculture in smart irrigation?
Farmers across the globe face three basic questions on a daily basis such as ‘When to irrigate? How much to irrigate? and How to irrigate?’ Most of the farmers do it on the basis of their ‘gut feeling’ and experience. However, the software of Manna Irrigation Intelligence provides the answers to the above problems at a very affordable cost through direct messaging on farmer’s mobile on a daily basis.
We provide high-resolution satellite imagery
of the field along with vegetation variability and plant wetness maps. We provide weather data and weather forecast (Hyper-local weather forecast). And most importantly along with the above two we provide very crop-specific and site-specific irrigation recommendations to answer – ‘When to irrigate and how much to irrigate’.
Rivulis India has recently developed a mobile app for smart irrigation. How will it help farmers in irrigation management?
Manna Irrigation helps farmers in three ways. It gives very site-specific and crop-specific irrigation recommendations, so avoids the chances of over-irrigation or under irrigation resulting in better crop/better yield. It helps in saving water and energy. It provides the opportunity to monitor the field remotely from any location.
What are the plans and growth strategies of the company during 2021?
We have a vision and we want to make Micro Irrigation accessible and affordable for every farmer. In 2020 we doubled the manufacturing capacity of our plant in India and with the new capacity, we have expanded our network in North and East India. The first strategy is to expand the reach. And in the last one year, we have launched a range of new products so as to provide a complete irrigation solution under one roof.
What are the challenges and opportunities in micro-irrigation in India?
Micro-irrigation has been around for three decades now. It is well known to be the most efficient way to deliver water and nutrients to plants and has proven ‘knock-out’ benefits, but penetration is still limited – probably less than 9 per cent of all cultivable land. I see two main reasons for this.
Cost: The cost of a complete micro-irrigation solution ranges from 1 to 1.50 lakh per hectare (Sometimes even higher). Although ‘permanent’ solutions can last for as long as 10 years, this cost remains a major inhibitor to large scale adoption. Though the government of India is providing subsidies and other state governments are topping it with their contribution, the initial cost is too high for a farmer to invest from his pocket. And most of the banks and other financial institutions are not coming forward to provide an easy financing option for drip irrigation adoption.
Micro-irrigation is complex by nature. It requires detailed hydraulic designs. Trade-offs need to be made between water pressures, pressure variations, water quality, flow rates, line lengths, filtration, fertigation and more. Systems need to be maintained over a long period of time – tubing and filters need to be flushed, repairs must be made and emitters must be kept clean at all times to avoid clogging, often by injecting acids and other chemicals. With annual crops, drip lines must be removed from the field at the end of each season and either be stored for the next season or disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner. All of this requires skilled labour which is difficult to find. Finally, micro-irrigation systems are fragile and can be damaged by field workers, rodents and insects. Fear of complexity, and of damage that can occur mid-season, keep all but the most progressive farmers away.
There is a need and there is a latent demand if anyone is willing to resolve the above two challenges. Even if only the financing issue is resolved you will see a manifold jump in adoption.
The government has announced Rs 5,000 crore to the Micro Irrigation Fund in the Union budget. How will it boost the growth of agriculture irrigation in India?
To further strengthen and expand the adoption of micro irrigation systems by the farmers in the county for enhancing water use efficiency at the farm level, a Budget announcement has been made to double the initial corpus of Micro Irrigation Fund of Rs 5000 created under NABARD, by augmenting it by another Rs 5,000 crore.
The enhancement of corpus by additional Rs 5000 crore will give a further boost to the efforts of more States/uts in promoting judicious use of water, enhancing water use efficiency as well as improving production and productivity which ultimately increase the income of the farming community. This fund will definitely help the state governments to avail long duration and low-cost loans to reach out to more farmers and increase the area under micro-irrigation or may use this to increase the subsidy to make it more affordable to farmers.