Uttar Pradesh is the acclaimed land of luxuriant agriculture. The development and prosperity of the state is primarily based on agriculture. The Minor Irrigation Dept. was established/created by GO No. 5819/38-8-517/1964 dtd. 08.10.1964, with its H.O.D. being Superintending Engineer level, with the aim of enhancing agricultural produce and with the objective to provide automated, expedient, economical and personal irrigation resources to the farmers. Afterwards the post of H.O.D. was upgraded to the level of Chief Engineer by GO No. 6241/38-4-1402(1)/76 dtd. 29.09.1976.

At present, viewing the geographical scenario of the state, the Minor Irrigation Dept. is capable of developing the irrigation resources on the low costing expenditure. For example shallow boring, construction of medium capacity deep tube wells and construction of deep wells by heavy machines in the plain areas, construction of well by the blasting in plateau/table land and hard soil areas of Bundelkhand, construction of wells in the rocky areas by the In-Well-Boring machine and boring in the partial rocky areas by D.C./D.T.H. machines are being undertaken by the dept. successfully for the last two decades. The dept. has undertaken the extraction of the ground water, the conservation of rain water for using it for the irrigation purposes, along with the construction of check dams for recharging ground water and renovation of traditional water sources in which renovation of ponds and small check dams is also included.

Minor Irrigation and Water Use Training Institute, Bakshi Ka Talab, Lucknow, is completely capable of imparting training to boring technicians, engineers and office assistants as per the requirement of the dept. At present the center is imparting training on “Roof Top Rain Water Harvesting ”.

At present 77.90% area out of total irrigated land of the state is being irrigated under the Minor Irrigation Project.