The Hindu Business Line : Irrigation woes

The recent breach of the Narmada canal is a telling reminder that mammoth funds alone do not ensure the success of public projects. With 6-7 per cent of Plan funds having been set aside for irrigation and flood control, India should have been an agriculturally prosperous country. The Eleventh Plan has earmarked Rs 21,0326 crore for irrigation — much of this allocation will be money down the drain, if little attention is paid to the execution and management of large irrigation projects. If the Narmada canal has breached more than once since it became operational in 2003, it goes to show that the implementing agency — Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd — has not taken the trouble to learn from its failure. Apart from the main canal, the distributaries are also in poor shape; this is because water users’ associations (WUAs) and the Nigam cannot agree on their respective responsibilities. The entire project suffers, irrigating less land than it ought to.

Irrigation systems work best when the responsibility of managing them vests as much with farmers as with the irrigation department. At least six States — Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Orissa — have enacted laws that make the creation of WUAs mandatory. But unless the law is accompanied by an effort to make such associations viable and, crucially, prepare the irrigation department for transfer of power to them, participatory irrigation management will be a non-starter. Despite the existence of user groups in Gujarat, farmers in Vadodara district, in 2003, were found breaking minor canals at many places to irrigate their kharif crops. The user bodies should, therefore, function as democratic organisations — follow a set of rules, have a transparent agreement with the irrigation department, hold regular meetings and include safeguards to protect small farmers — for them to be acceptable to all.

Apart from the institutional aspect, WUAs need small, but critical, incentives to keep them going. In Maharashtra, the Central and State Governments provide the associations a management grant when they take on some of the tasks of the irrigation department. They are given a concession for timely payment of user charges. They can grow whatever crop they like and pay for the volume of water used rather than the area cultivated. While all this helps, the actual handing over of the project to user groups is riddled with problems. A “joint inspection” by the department and WUA representatives to identify the required repairs before the transfer of power rarely happens on time. The Rs 320-crore Bennethora dam in Karnataka’s Gulbarga district, for instance, was inaugurated in July 2006, but the surrounding drought-prone areas are yet to benefit from it — because the mandatory joint inspection has not taken place. There is no point planning grandiose irrigation projects without sorting out governance issues.

Related Stories:
Investment in rural infrastructure crucial
New growth engine for economy
Indian agriculture: Hard questions on R&D turf

More Stories on : Editorial | Agriculture

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Irrigation woes

New fetters on auditors

Ranbaxy promoters’ timely exit

Why have oil prices gone crazy?

‘Banks now have greater ability to absorb credit losses’

Birth of venture capital

Finance Ministry clarifies

Dear money