Irrigation profile of Yadgir District

Yadgir district is the second smallest district in the state and very rich in cultural traditions. The vast stretch of fertile black soil of the district is known for bumper red gram and jowar crops. The district is a “Daal bowl” of the state. The district is also known for cluster ofcement industries and a distinct stone popularly known as “Malakheda Stone”.The district is having one revenue sub-divisionviz. Yadgir. There are 03 revenue blocks in the district viz., Shahapur, Shorapur and Yadgir. The district consists of 16hoblis, One City municipal, 3 Town Muncipal, 1 Town Panchayat, 3 Taluk Panchayats, 117 Grama Panchayats, 4 Assembly constituencies. There are 519 village (487inhabited and 32 uninhabited).As per2011 Census, the total population of the district is11,74,271 comprising, 5,90,329 male and 5,83,942 female population. The percentage and male and female population is 50.27 and 49.73,respectively.

Rivers

Krishna and Bhima Rivers  constitute the two major river basins of the district. Kagna and Amarja are the two sub -basins of Bhima River, which occur within the geographical area of the district.

Major Places

The total irrigated area in Shorapur and Shahapurtaluks are respectively 77172 ha and 61639 ha. Canals, open wells, tube wells and lift irrigation have been the major source of irrigation in the district. Yadgir taluk has a smaller percentage of irrigated area accounting for 25491 ha. The whole district has 164302 ha of irrigated area, which is 55per cent of the net sown area. The average irrigation intensity in the district is around 109%, indicating the non availability of irrigation for second season for most of the cultivated land. 

Salient irrigation projects

1. Sonthi Lift Irrigation Scheme

Sonthi Lift Irrigation Scheme Commencement of Project2007, the barrage site are 160, 49' 50" & longitude of 760, 55' 45". The storage capacity envisaged is 2.89 TMC of water including dead storage of 0.265 TMC.  Nearly 16,000 Hectares of land comes under irrigation in Chittapur Taluk of Gulbarga District & Yadgir Taluka of Yadgir District. The income due to additional food crops will benefit poor farmers.

      2. Basava Sagar Dam

Basava Sagar Dam is built across River Krishna and is also called Narayanpur Dam. It is located in Narayanpur in Yadgir district of Karnataka. Basava Sagar Dam was a single purpose project and was meant for irrigation but drinking water production and generation of downstream electricity are some of the functions of this dam. It took around 50 crores for the construction of this dam in 1982. This project has an estimated capacity of 31.47 TMC.