Employment of 7.49 lakh man-days has been generated, 408 water tanks have been constructed and 214 tanks are under construction under a new initiative taken by Haryana Horticulture Department to integrate a component of National Horticulture Mission with Micro Irrigation. The official spokesman said the component of construction of community tanks as water conservation measure was integrated with horticulture plantation, vermi-compost unit and irrigation mandatory through drip system. He said this initiative has yielded encouraging results in terms of output of the schemes and generation of employment. This initiative was started in the year 2006-07 and has benefitted small and marginal farmers as tanks of different capacity have been designed and constructed. As many as 453 more tanks would be constructed during the current financial year. As a result of this integration of components of two schemes, the rate of survival of plants increased as the crops are irrigated for more days. On an average, water requirement of young plants in an orchard, through drip irrigation, is 15 liters per plant per day. Therefore, a full size tank is sufficient to cater to the water requirement of plants in an area of 10 hectares. In case of intercropping in the main orchard, a full size tank is sufficient plants in 10 hectares for 60 days. He said the cost of construction of each tank of 1.75 lakh cubic feet with a capacity of 49.50 lakh liters is Rs 10 lakh which comes out as Rs 5.75 per cubic feet for each unit.