The Hindu Business Line : Need for early completion of pending irrigation projects

It is becoming clearer by the day that although agriculture is the responsibility of the State Governments — the subject falls in the `State' list in the Constitution — the onus of ensuring food security and nutrition security is increasingly perceived as the duty of the Centre.

Whether the Central Government (successive governments over the last 50 years) has acquitted itself well in the discharge of this responsibility is debatable. But the question that must be asked is whether the Centre has done enough or all that it could to ensure food and nutrition security for the people.

Dependence on rainfall

One of the major issues impacting Indian agriculture is dependence on monsoon and low level of irrigation facilities. Only about 40 per cent of land under cultivation is irrigated. Of the approximately 60 million hectares irrigated area, wheat accounts for the highest share of 22 ml.ha (88 per cent of total area under wheat) followed by rice at 21.5 ml. ha (52 per cent of total area).The rest is mainly for oilseeds at 5.5 ml. ha (25 per cent of 22 ml.ha), sugarcane at 4.3 ml. ha (92 per cent) and cotton 2.5 ml. ha (33 per cent). No wonder, dependence on rainfall continues to create uncertainties in production. In case of most crops India is turning to be a major importer despite being one of world's largest producers.

One of the biggest tragedies for the country is that despite being endowed with natural resources — sunshine, water, varying agro-climatic conditions, labour — agriculture has not shown robust growth in recent years. Indeed, it is the laggard in the country's growth story. It reflects management failure. Government policies have not helped adequate utilisation of favourable factors of production. The situation has actually become worse in recent years. Annual average agricultural growth rate that was 4.5 per cent in the Eighth Five-Year Plan (1992-1997) plunged to 2.2 per cent in the Ninth FYP (1997-2002). The situation worsened in the first three years of the Tenth FYP with annual average growth of less than 1.5 per cent.

Water management

It is the admitted position that water is the most critical input for agriculture. Scientific management of water resources will help enhance crop productivity and production. The best of inputs — seeds, fertilizers — would be rendered waste if water is not managed properly.

Irrigation projects are critical for the growth and development of the country's agriculture. Despite this, a large number of river-valley projects, both multipurpose and for irrigation, have spilled over from Plan to Plan.

At the beginning of the Tenth FYP, there were 494 ongoing irrigation projects both approved and unapproved. These comprised 173 major, 235 medium and 86 extension, renovation and modernisation (ERM) projects spilled over from the previous Plans. Currently (as of April 1, 2006), there are 452 ongoing irrigation projects both approved and unapproved, of which 157 are major, 212 medium and 83 ERM.

Huge cost and time overruns have become a characteristic feature of the country's irrigation projects. There are several `last-mile projects' waiting for completion because they are starved of funds.

Cost escalation

According to the Ministry of Water Resources, a comparison of the original approved cost of ongoing irrigation projects and latest estimated cost indicates that the escalation in cost in respect of approved ongoing projects due to delay in completion is of the order of about Rs 90,000 crores.

What ails irrigation? Irrigation projects are languishing for various reasons. According to the Central Government, an important reason is inadequate provision of funds by concerned State Governments. To address the issue, in 1996-97, the Centre launched the Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Program (AIBP) to provide Central loan assistance for such approved irrigation projects, which are in an advanced stage of construction and beyond the resource capability of the States that can be completed in next four financial years. Yet, nothing substantial has come out of the AIBP. Out of the total 494 irrigation projects, it was anticipated that about 331 projects (93 major, 180 medium and 58 ERM) would be completed during the current Plan period; and see what happened.

Performance

In the first three years, that is up to March 2005, only 38 projects were completed. These included 16 major, 19 medium and 3 ERM projects.

Among States, Maharashtra completed 13 projects out of 107 targeted projects for the Tenth FYP; Andhra Pradesh completed 6 projects out of 31; and Orissa 4 out of 23. Madhya Pradesh completed 3 out of 7 and Jharkhand 3 out of 17.

Where does this leave other important States? According to information from the Water Resources Ministry, the performance has been absolutely tardy. Both Tamil Nadu and West Bengal vie with Bihar for not completing even a single project although they had targeted 3, 9 and 10 projects respectively.

Karnataka completed just one project out of the targeted 39, while Uttar Pradesh was better in completing 2 projects out of 11; and there is nothing much to write about others.

As to who is responsible for this sorry state of affairs can be debated endlessly. The question today is not who is culpable, but how best and how soon can many of these projects be completed and benefits shared by the nation. Completion of irrigation projects must become a national obsession and the governments will have to find ways and means to raise funds.

In addition to inadequate irrigation there are other constraints such as fragmented landholding, low level of input usage, suspect quality of inputs, antiquated agronomic practices, poor pre- and post-harvest crop management, lack of rural infrastructure and so on.