A Geographical Study on Growth Pattern and Development of Micro-Irrigation Sector in Karnataka: A Trend Analysis

Abstract

Micro-irrigation has emerged as an important strategy for improving agricultural water-use efficiency, enhancing crop productivity and reducing pressure on groundwater resources in Karnataka. The Micro Irrigation (MI) sector in Karnataka has emerged as a cornerstone of the state’s sustainable agriculture strategy, consistently ranking among India’s top-performing states under the centrally sponsored ‘Per Drop More Crop’ (PDMC) scheme. Facing critical groundwater depletion in its vast arid and semi-arid tracts, Karnataka has aggressively scaled up drip and sprinkler adoption through substantial budgetary support and pioneering community engineering models. Driven by severe groundwater depletion in its arid regions, the state has achieved cumulative progress exceeding 2.23 lakh ha in recent budget cycles (As per the Press Information Bureau, 2026). The present study analyses the growth and spatial distribution of the micro-irrigation sector in Karnataka during 2015–2026 using a combination of statistical and geo-spatial techniques. The study focuses primarily on drip and sprinkler irrigation and examines changes in area covered, beneficiary participation, public expenditure and spatial concentration across districts.
The Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.140 indicates a very weak positive relationship between government expenditure and the area covered under micro-irrigation. However, the p-value (0.764) is greater than 0.05, indicating that the relationship is not statistically significant at the 5% level. Therefore, the null hypothesis (H₀) is not rejected, while the alternative hypothesis is not supported. This suggests that, for the period 2016–17 to 2022–23, variations in government expenditure do not show a statistically significant linear relationship with the area covered under micro-irrigation. The study argues that the spatial pattern of micro-irrigation is strongly associated with horticultural intensity, groundwater dependence, drought vulnerability, cropping pattern and government intervention. Spatial informatics provides an effective framework for identifying high-, medium- and low-adoption zones and for supporting regionally differentiated water-management policies.

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