Vadodara, 15 April 2012

In presence of Vice Consul of Israel in India, Gujarat Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi today inaugurated international water management company Netafim Irrigation’s new plant at Savli in Vadodara district. This is Netafim’s second such plant in Gujarat. The first plant is functional since 2001 in same district.

Speaking on this occasion Shri Modi said that after success in water conservation movement, the state has now initiated a movement for water irrigation.

He said within next one year, total one million hector agricultural land in Gujarat will be covered under micro irrigation. He added that this year 2.25 lakh hector agricultural land will be provided micro irrigation facility at a cost of Rs 400 crore.

Modi remembered his Israel tour and praised Israel’s achievements in agriculture in spite of water scarcity.

“In initial years after Gujarat gained statehood, farmers were diverted to wrong path of ‘farming with electricity’, but the right path was ‘farming with water’. During our regime, we started water conservation drive to store rain water which resulted into rise in level of underground water. While in entire India, ground water level has gone down, it is only Gujarat where ground water level has come up in range of 3-13 meter. This success story has been published by the Government of India in its report,” Shri Modi said.

Modi gave mantra of ‘per drop-more crop’ to farmers and said that in past the area under drip irrigation in Gujarat was hardly 10,000 hector, but today it has gone up to 7 lakh hector. More 2.25 lakh hector will be added this year by pumping in Rs 400 crore.

On this occasion Shri Narendra Modi presented Netafim Krushi Ratna Award to 8 farmers. Among those awarded were Junagadh district’s Bhesan based Pravinbhai Gajera(potato), Sabarkantha’s Prantij taluka’s Sonaran village based Girishbhai Patel, Anand district’s Ode village based Chandrakant Patel(banana), Bharuch district’s Valia taluka based Vanrajsinh Badola(sugarcane), Gandhinagar district’s Chandrala village based Vijaybhai Patel(rose), Vadodara district’s Kasampura based Gopalbhai Patel(high-tech farming), Sabarkantha’s Dolpur kampa based Jiteshkumar Patel and Vadodara district’s Moti tokri village based Karsanbhai Rathwa.

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