“ ‘Erratic monsoon’ and ‘Indebtedness’ are the major problems of Indian agriculture.” Suggest and explain the measures to overcome these problems.

Suggestions for solving the problem of Erratic Monsoon:

(i) Expansion of irrigation facilities.

(ii) Efficient use of water for irrigation.

(iii) Improvement in the methods of irrigation e.g. use of drip irrigation & sprinklers.

(iv) Rainwater harvesting

(v) Maintenance of existing lakes, ponds, tanks etc.

(vi) Any other relevant point

Suggestions for Solving the problem of Rural Indebtedness:

(i) Minimum support price

(ii) Provision of subsidies (seeds, fertilisers etc.)

(iii) Storage facilities

(iv) Provision of loan at low-interest rates

Sources of water pollutants created by humans :

(i)Sewage disposal

(ii)Toxic effluents from industries 

The economic and social values of rainwater harvesting:

 (i) It is a low cost and eco-friendly technique for preserving every drop of water by guiding the rain water to bore well, pits and wells.

 (ii) Rainwater harvesting increases water availability and checks the declining ground water table.

 (iii) Improves the quality of groundwater through dilution of contaminants like fluoride and nitrates. 

• India has a large population compared to the limited water resources.
• India has traditionally been an agrarian economy as two-third of it population has been dependent on agriculture due to which more and more water is required for irrigation purposes to increase agricultural production as rainfall is highly variable in most of the indian states.
• Due to rapid industrial growth there is an increase in the demand of water for various purposes like cooling of machineries etc.
• Urbanization and modern life style has also increased the demand of water.
• The available water resources are also getting polluted with industrial, agricultural and domestic effluents, and this, in turn, is further limiting the availability of water resources.

(18.1) Agriculture sectors accounts for most of the groundwater utilisation.

In agriculture, water is mainly used for irrigation. Irrigation is needed because of spatio-temporal variability in rainfall in the country. The large tracts of the country are deficient in rainfall and are drought prone.

(18.2) However, due to topographical, hydrological and other constraints, only about 690 cubic km (32 per cent) of the available surface water can be utilised.