The government has failed to provide the actual percentage of the land under irrigation in Maharashtra in the Economic Survey. This is for the 10th successive year that it has been shown blank in the table.
According to the Economic Survey, the irrigated area in the command area under the jurisdiction of the Water Resources Department is 40.52 lakh hectares (76.4%) in 2019-20. Irrigation potential created as on June 30, 2019 by major, medium and minor irrigation projects was 53.04 lakh hectares. Irrigation potential created as on June 30, 2020, was 19.26 lakh hectares and potential utilised was 8.65 lakh hectares (44.8%) during 2019-20.
The total live storage, as on October 15, 2019, in the major, medium and minor irrigation (state sector) reservoirs taken together was 30,579 million cubic meters, which was about 69.2 per cent of the storage capacity as per the project design.
By the end of November, 2020, in all, 10,974 Water Users Associations (WUA) with an area of 49.79 lakh hectares have been formed in the state under the Water Resource Department for management of irrigation systems by farmers. Out of these WUA, 1,689 WUA covering 6.76 lakh hectares are registered under the Maharashtra Management of Irrigation System by Farmers Act, 2005, and 454 WUA covering 1.73 lakh hectares are constituted under the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960.
