Most of the land type in Sambalpur district is rocky. That is one of reasons which makes difficult to ensure irrigation in Kharip season. Out of the 9 blocks of Sambalpur district, Maneswar and Dhankauda are partly irrigated by Hirakud dam project. While remaining other 7 blocks solely depends on monsoon. The agriculture of the district is till date depended on small and medium projects. Further, government sources revealed that, in the Kharip season out of the total 6,83,41 hectares land of the district only 1,93,674 hectares land have irrigation facilities from different water resources. While in the Ravi crop only 3,92,33 hectares land have the facilities to get irrigated. Now mega lift irrigation projects are under way to strengthen the irrigation and support the agriculture of the district.
As per the information, there is aim to installed 8 mega lift irrigation projects in Sambalpur district. Out of the 8 projects, 2 will be set at Rampella of Rengali block and other 6 will be set in Kuchinda block. The work will complete up to September. The proposed 8 projects will irrigate 13,000 hectare land and will cost 260 crores.
The Rampella project will use the water of River Mahandi. These 2 projects will irrigate 1200 and 2000 hectares land.
Another project is proposed set at Gaenpur of Maneswar block. This project will also use the water from river Mahanadi.
According to the information of the Lift Irrigation Division of the district, 800 lift irrigation points will be set in the district to facilitate farmers. Three lakhs will be spent for each lift point with the association of the farmers. Each point will irrigate 2 hectares land and more than it. Now in the district, 2500 lift points are working out of the 5000 lift points. The other points are under-construction.