Panel in place to regulate industry water use

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, meanwhile, at the inaugural meeting of the Council said, ‘‘Investment in surface irrigation systems has created islands of prosperity, but has done little to improve local food security in many parts of the country.’’ He was referring to the suicides in Vidarbha where digging wells was a major cause of their indebtedness.

Expressing concern over the sharp decline in groundwater level across the country, Singh said ‘‘water management strategies will need to be carefully designed to contribute to a more equitable growth process.’’ Water availability for agriculture, he said, remained the ‘‘most critical and perhaps the most limiting factor’’ on its growth.

Stating that the artificial recharge movement was first and foremost a people’s movement, he said it involved development of thousands of disaggregated water structures across the country. ‘‘We have to augment our water resources— build large and small reservoirs… minimise our water use and invest in science and technology to ensure that we can grow crops which use less water. In other words, find ways of valuing the crop per drop,’’ he said.

At the meeting, it was also decided that 31 agrarian distress areas would be taken up to provide the best available scientific advice. Moreover, a sub-committee, with noted agricultural scientist M S Swaminathan as chairman, would prepare a paper within two months on the Prime Minister’s concept of ‘‘more crop and income per drop of water’’.