The Hindu Business Line : ‘AIBP, other irrigation schemes yielding little water for farmers’

The Economic Survey for 2007-08 has admitted that the new initiatives for extending irrigation potential in the country – including the much-hyped Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) – have had only “limited success”.

During the period from 1950-51 to 1989-90, there was an average annual growth of about three per cent in new irrigation potential created, which slowed down to 1.2 per cent in the Eighth Plan period (1992-93 to 1996-97).

Since then, there has been a marginal improvement to 1.7 per cent in the Ninth Plan (1997-98 to 2001-02) and 1.8 per cent in the Tenth Plan (2002-03 to 2006-07). This has coincided with the AIBP, which was initiated in 1996-97 and with a cumulative sum of Rs 21,739.9 crore invested by the Centre.

From the accompanying Table, it can be seen that since the end of the Eighth Plan, 16.5 million hectares (mh) of new irrigation potential has been created. Of this, about 4.6 mh has been courtesy of AIBP. During the 10th Plan, “only a little over 8 mh could be brought under irrigation”.

But worse is the utilisation of the potential created. At the end of 2006-07, the cumulative irrigation potential created of 102.8 mh was estimated to be 73.5 per cent of the ultimate irrigation potential.

However, even of the potential created, only 87.2 mh (84.9 per cent) was actually utilised. And, this percentage has steadily fallen since the early nineties, which “not only amounts to an inefficient use of funds, but also a foregone income from irrigated lands”, the Survey has noted.

What is further revealing in the data presented in the Survey is that the gross irrigated area, which showed an annual growth of 2.3 per cent during 1980-81 to 1990-91 and 2.6 per cent during 1990-91 to 1996-97 slowed down to 0.5 per cent between 1996-97 and 2003-04!

In fact, between 1998-99 and 2005-06, the irrigated area under foodgrains rose from 55 mh to just 55.5 mh, while increasing from 4.1 mh to 4.3 mh for sugarcane, 6.6 mh to 8.7 mh for oilseeds and 3.2 mh to 3.1 mh for cotton.

The Survey has also noted that the annual growth rate in consumption of electricity in agriculture has declined substantially from 14.1 per cent during 1980-81 to 1990-91 to 9.4 per cent during 1990-91 to 1996-97 and minus 0.5 per cent during 1996-97 to 2004-05.

There has further been zero growth in yield potential of new varieties of paddy, rapeseed-mustard, groundnut, wheat and maize between 1996-97 and 2005-06. This compares to 2.8 per cent during 1990-91 to 1996-97 and 3.3 per cent during 1980-81 to 1990-91.

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