Vidarbha’s ₹11,500 Cr Irrigation Potential
Year after year, the Vidarbha region in Maharashtra finds itself at the center of grim headlines—farmer suicides, failed harvests, and cries for separate statehood. Yet few pause to ask why a region blessed with fertile black soil and ample monsoon rainfall continues to wallow in agricultural despair. The answer doesn’t lie in the skies—it lies beneath the ground, in the 12 lakh hectares of land that could be irrigated but remain dry due to decades of bureaucratic negligence and political apathy.
Imagine if this neglected land were brought under irrigation: soybean and tur alone could generate over ₹11,500 crore annually, dwarfing the returns of many headline-grabbing welfare schemes. With a return on investment as high as 77%, this isn’t just a rural development strategy—it’s one of the highest-yielding public investments the country could make. So why is it not happening? Who benefits from keeping Vidarbha dry?
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