Agriculture and Irrigation

Although the district is bestowed with mineral wealth, it is pre dominantly in habited by farmers whose main source of livelihood is agriculture. Almost 79% of the total work force of the district depends on agriculture 8& related activities. Due to erratic rain, obscene of irrigational facilities, the farmers are not able to grow enough to meet their food migration to other places. For want of irrigational facilities the farmers have traditionally been doing mono cropping resulting in poor economy these beading to disenchantment with the age-old profession. In the larger interest of the rural economy agriculture needs to be strengthened and one of its most important inputs ie irrigation needs to be given due priority. Irrigation in the district has hitter to not been accorded the priority it deserves and with the launch of Rastriya Sam Vikas Yojna it was thought desirable to in clued irrigation sector for a planned employment so that more & more water may be stored for irrigation of Khariff, Rabi as well as vegetables 86 other cash crops as these inasmuch possibility of other type of irrigation. With this aim in view the perennial nallahs of the district were identified and on popular demand of farmers several sites were visited by Deputy Commissioner of the district along with other administrative and technical officers to have an on the spot idea of the feasible sites and to discuss farmers participation in execution and post construction maintenance of these irrigation schemes. The district comes under the influence of three river systems namely the Damodar (Ganga basin), North Koel and South Koel with a num by of small rain fed and dry up in summer months. The district has a surface flow of 481 MCM which till recently has been largely untapped. Most of the nallahs have enough flow during the monsoon but the flow is considerably reduced in bean periods and these is not enough storage even for individual pump sets. It was decided to construct check dams in series to store maximum water and to provide irrigation to nearby fields ether through gravity flow or through lift irrigation schemes. In previous years a few check dams wise constructed under SGRY and they have proved beneficial. Under RSVY during year 2004-05 a substantial sum of Rs. 750 lacs was allocated for irrigation sector and minor irrigation division, Lohardaga was entrusted with the task of planning design & execution of these schemes. These check dams are primarily pucca check dams located across. Stream flow with silt ejector devices and gear operated gates to flush out deposited silt and to store & release water as per convenience of the farmers.

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