DEVELOPMENT OF IRRIGATION OF

STRUCTURE

India has had an enviable past with excellent irrigation

systems in large numbers spread across the entire country for

providing support to agricultural development for centuries

together. With modern technology at hand, the British rulers in

their initial period of administration in India, either as the East

India Company, or as Government of India, took some interest in

promoting irrigation works of large magnitude like the

development of irrigation canals which could facilitate for the

collection of more revenue from the lands. But development of

agriculture as such was not the principal motto. To reduce the

acute hardships faced by the .natives. who were the British

subjects, some irrigation works were also taken up as famine

relief works in the drought prone areas. But systematic

development of irrigation as a science and an art left much to be

desired. The British engineers did not have much of an experience

in irrigating the agricultural farms. They were basically civil

engineers with an excellent track record in the planning and

maintenance of navigation canals linking the rivers in the United

Kingdom. It was only after independence that planned

development of irrigation was thought of as one of the priority

requirements for the growth of India.s economy and social well

being and was undertaken on an extensive scale throughout

India. In the initial planning period after Independence, the

irrigation projects continued to be considered in line with the

general pattern of public works organized and controlled by the

Government as before during the British rule. It was only after

1960 that the concept of socio-economic benefits got formally

associated with the planning and development of the irrigation

systems. Financial returns from the system for the Government

treasury did not remain the sole criteria thereafter. But basically

the image of the irrigation developments of the Government

continued to be only as builders of dams and canals, rather than

as developers of irrigation, for quite some time even after

Independence. From a situation of food scarcity, the country

clearly moved into a situation of food adequacy after the initial

efforts in the spread of irrigation networks coupled with the

agricultural thrust for green revolution. New agricultural

technology could be put to a profitable use when sustained

irrigation

support was available for agricultural lands. India has now

emerged as a food exporting country. High value agricultural

crops have also been now possible through assured supply of

water and improved modern irrigation techniques like sprinkler,

drip and green houses. There has been an all round development

of agriculture through the spread of irrigation. The country is now

ready for moving ahead with much greater confidence in securing

its requirements from its land and water resources. There have

been a large number of success stories in respect of technological

innovations for irrigation structures, irrigation management

techniques and for irrigator.s cooperative organizations also. The

extensive rural economic growth brought about by the Bhakra

irrigation system has been well recognized even globally.The

excellent mobilization of people for the development of the

watersheds by the Tarun Bharat Sangh in Rajasthan, and the

coming up of farmer managed irrigation systems showing good

financial results in Maharashtra, are also other encouraging

signals. In the meanwhile demands on water have been

increasing rapidly from the non-agricultural sectors also. There is

considerable competition administratively, organizationally and

financially, for taking away more water from agriculture from the

limited water resources in the basin. Indian water sector at large

is, therefore, going to be quite different from what it was a couple

of decades back and certainly far more different from the one in

the pre-British period, during the British period, or from the days

when India started on its modernization path in a planned manner

after independence. The country as a whole is now on the

threshold of a very new challenging era in water management,

where different uses of water will have to be reconciled on the

basis of economic and social criteria. New technologists will have

to be much more innovative in saving water in agriculture as well

as in recycling of water used for industrial and municipal supplies

to make it available again for use in agriculture. Research in this

direction will have to be promoted extensively. There will not be

any one national pattern as such in this respect throughout India,

because of extreme variation in the climatic setup and the large

differences in the natural land to water ratios. An integrated

approach to the development and management of the basin/sub-

basin will determine the different pattern of mixes for the different

categories of uses and the different types of techniques. But by

and large, 222 IE (I) Journal.CV evaporation will continue to be one

of the main hydrological concern that will need much greater

attention and innovative efforts for arresting it at the storage

point as well as on the irrigated farms. The evaporation loss is

very high throughout the country, but it is particularly critical in

the drought prone areas which receive less than 700 mm of

rainfall but loose more than 3 000 mm through evaporation from

the water

bodies. From the irrigated farms, the loss is even greater, because

of the greater heat absorption by the farm soil during the sunlight

hours. Irrigation systems will have to be carefully

reviewed in this context and re-planned for better efficiencies in

the use of agricultural water.

Ground water has been playing an increasing role in irrigation in

terms of area coverage and quantitative supply. Conjunctive use

of surface and ground water together has come to stay in

the canal commands. More sophisticated planning for the

successful management of the conjunctive systems will need

much better understanding of the infiltration processes not

only for the precipitating water, but also for the irrigation water

applied to the farms. Added to this will be the phenomenon of salt

transfer by the infiltrating water, which could be quite harmful

under intensive use of chemical fertilizers on the farm. Techniques

for controlling this harmful phenomenon and ensuring long term

sustainability of irrigated area will need to be developed and

propagated. Energy required for pumping of water is likely to cost

more and more in the years to come. Hence, the surface water .

ground water mix may have also to undergo a change in the

years to come. Control and management of surface irrigation

systems has been relatively simple. But ground water

management, more the so in the hard rock areas has been very

difficult, because of imperfect understanding of the ground water

processes and the invisible nature of the ground water

movements. Monitoring and control of ground water extraction

can be organized only with the cooperation and involvement of

the ground water users. No physical control and regulation is

feasible in this case. Community participation in irrigation will

therefore be very crucial hereafter in all patterns of irrigation

management. Organizational restructuring of the irrigation sector

is clearly over due, along with the management of the river basins

through properly constituted basin authorities. An interdisciplinary

set up will be necessary for the irrigation department as well as

for the basin organizations. Productivity of the irrigation farms has

not yet reached the expected levels. The civil engineers who

provided the earlier lead for the irrigation development in India

will have to work hereafter with agricultural engineers,

agricultural scientists, economists, sociologists and community

organizers to enhance the irrigation efficiencies in terms of

productivity per cubic meter of water put to agricultural use.

Command area development authorities have not yet been able

to fully achieve the expected outputs. They will have to be further

re-structured in tune with the requirements of the future.

Agricultural engineers, geo-hydrologists, agricultural scientists,

soil scientists, economists and community organizers will have to

be a part of the authorities set up. The flood prone areas and the

high rainfall areas have particularly not yet shown encouraging

signs of expected outputs from the lands, because of the intrinsic

natural

handicaps from excessive leaching and erosion. Irrigation

technologies have been, by and large, developed so far mainly for

low rainfall areas and flat terrains. Technologies for high rainfall

terrains, mountainous areas and flood prone regions will need

considerable upgradation to achieve the desired level of

productivity and the resultant improvement in the

economic status of the farmers in those areas, who are generally

entrapped in a poverty syndrome. The National Water

Development Agency entrusted with the task of optimization of

water uses in the different basins and the identification of feasible

water transfers from water-rich basins to water-scarce basins will

have to go a long way in addressing the issues of water

productivity, economics of large size infrastructures,

organizational niceties of integrated

management and the environmental measures required to be

associated with re-arrangement of land and water relationships.

Much of the consumptive use from the water transfer will be in

irrigation. Hence, economics of irrigation will hold the key to the

acceptability and sustainability of such transfers. Professional

associations like the Institution of Engineers (India) and Indian

Water Resources Society will have to work together with the

governmental agencies to analyze the newly emerging scenarios

and to preach and promote appropriate technological,

organizational, environmental and financial packages for the long

term successes of the irrigational efforts as an intrinsic part of

improved water management at large. The new National Water

Policy and the State Policies, such as, that of Maharashtra

encourage a participatory interdisciplinary approach in the

management of the water resources. Proper mechanisms for

achieving the required patterns of participatory work will have to

be put in place early after appropriate deliberations in the

national seminars, such as, the present one.