The Hindu Business Line : Rs 35,000-cr infusion fails to lift irrigation benefits

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New Delhi, March 6 Since 1996-97, the Centre has spent a total of Rs 20,598.48 crore under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP), with the States releasing an additional Rs 15,000 crore or so.

But despite this huge public funds infusion, the country's net farm area that is officially irrigated has remained virtually static at 53-55 million hectares (mh).

Between 1995-96 (before the AIBP was launched) and 2003-04 (the last year for which official data is available), the gross irrigated area has risen from 46.5 mh to 49.3 mh for all cereals, from three mh to 3.3 mh for pulses and from 3.9 mh to four mh for sugarcane. Moreover, even this marginal increase has been offset by declines in respect of oilseeds (from 7.3 mh to 6.5 mh) and cotton (from 3.2 mh to 2.6 mh).

Simply put, the results of pumping in over Rs 35,000 crore of public money on AIBP have barely trickled down to its ostensible beneficiary - the humble Indian farmer. For him, the AIBP has apparently conferred neither acceleration nor benefit.

When confronted with this stark dichotomy, an official from the Union Ministry of Water Resources told Business Line that the AIBP's performance should be measured in terms of the `irrigation potential' that has been created.

"In any irrigation project, what we create is the base infrastructure - from the head works on the river, reservoir to trap water, main canal, branch canals and distributaries up to the outlet opening (which caters to 50-100 hectares). How much of this irrigation potential reaches the farmer depends on whether the catchments have received enough rainfall (to operate close to the full reservoir level). Also, there may be no watercourses to convey water from the outlet points to the fields," he noted.

So, how much of new `irrigation potential' has been created under the AIBP? The cumulative figure from 1995-96 to 2005-06 comes to 4.04 mh, with another 0.9 mh estimated to be created this fiscal. All that adds to some five mh over a 11-year span.

Now, how does this compare to the pre-AIBP era? Again, official data on actual irrigated area (as against `irrigation potential' created) shows an increase of 7.7 mh in the seventies and 6.5 mh in the eighties for cereals alone. The corresponding figures were 1.2 mh and 3.5 mh for oilseeds, 0.5 mh and one mh for sugarcane and 0.7 mh and 0.4 mh for cotton.

Interestingly, even between 1990-91 and 1995-96 (pre-launch), an additional 4.2 mh of cereal area came under irrigation. The total net irrigated area during this period rose from 47.78 mh to 53.40 mh and has, since then, hovered around the latter levels!

With AIBP clearly not delivering the intended benefits, the Centre has since embarked on a new programme under Bharat Nirman. Under this, it is planned to develop 10 mh of new irrigation potential between 2005-06 and 2008-09, including 5.2 mh through major and medium projects and the rest through minor schemes. Whether this would translate into tangible benefits to the farmer or again end up throwing good money after bad remains to be seen.

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