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Irrigation in India

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Not to be confused with Water supply and sanitation in India.
An irrigation canal in Gujarat. Irrigation contributes significantly to the agriculture in India.

Irrigation in India includes a network of major and minor canals from Indian rivers, groundwater well based systems, tanks, and other rainwater harvesting projects for agricultural activities. Of these groundwater system is the largest.[1] In 2013-14, only about 36.7% of total agricultural land in India was reliably irrigated.[2] The largest canal in India is Indira Gandhi Canal, which is about 650 km long. About 2/3rd cultivated land in India is dependent on monsoons.[3] Irrigation in India helps improve food security, reduce dependence on monsoons, improve agricultural productivity and create rural job opportunities. Dams used for irrigation projects help produce electricity and transport facilities, as well as provide drinking water supplies to a growing population, control floods and prevent droughts.[4]

History

Ancient India

The earliest mentions of irrigation are found in Rigveda chapters 1.55, 1.85, 1.105, 7.9, 8.69 and 10.101.[5] The Veda mentions only well-style irrigation,[6] where kupa and avata wells once dug are stated to be always full of water, from which varatra (rope strap) and cakra (wheel) pull kosa (pails) of water. This water was, state the Vedas, led into surmi susira (broad channels) and from there into khanitrima (diverting channels) into fields.[5]

Later, the 4th-century BCE Indian scholar Pāṇini, mentions tapping several rivers for irrigation.[5][7] The mentioned rivers include Sindhu, Suvastu, Varnu, Sarayu, Vipas and Chandrabhaga.[5] Buddhist texts from the 3rd century BCE also mention irrigation of crops.[6] Texts from the Maurya Empire era (3rd century BCE) mention that the state raised revenue from charging farmers for irrigation services from rivers.[5][8]

Patanjali, in Yogasutra of about the 4th century CE, explains a technique of yoga by comparing it to "the way a farmer diverts a stream from an irrigation canal for irrigation".[9][10] In Tamil Nadu, the Grand Anicut (canal) across the Kaveri river was implemented in the 3rd century CE, and the basic design is still used today.Peace[8]

Medieval era

The most widespread irrigation system in India was undertaken in India in the medieval period by the Sultanate rulers. Firuz Shah Tughalq (1309-1388) built the most extensive canal irrigation system around the Indo-Gangetic doab and the region west of the river Yamuna in the fourteenth century. These canals provided vast resources of water to agricultural lands in northern India as well as vital supplies of water to urban and rural settlements.[11]. These irrigation projects were continued by the subsequent rulers of northern India, particularly the Mughal rulers till the early eighteenth century. The British built the colonial canal networks on these medieval canal systems.[12]

Colonial era

Ganges irrigation canal built during the colonial era, and inaugurated in 1854.

In 1800, some 800,000 hectares were irrigated in India.[8] The British Raj by 1940 built significant number of canals and irrigation systems in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,[13] Punjab, Assam and Orissa.[14][15][16] The Ganges Canal reached 350 miles from Haridwar to Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. In Assam, a jungle in 1840, by 1900 had 1.62m hectares under cultivation, especially in tea plantations. In all, the amount of irrigated land multiplied by a factor of eight. Historian David Gilmour states British colonial government had built irrigation network with Ganges canal and that, "by the end of the century the new network of canals in the Punjab" were in place.[17]

Much of the increase in irrigation during British colonial era was targeted at dedicated poppy and opium farms in India, for exports to China.[18][19][20] Poppy cultivation by the British Raj required reliable, dedicated irrigation system.[21] Large portions of the eastern and northern regions of India, namely United Provinces, Northwestern Provinces, Oudh, Behar, Bengal and Rewa were irrigated to ensure reliable supply of poppy and opium for China.[22] By 1850, the Asian opium trade created nearly 1,000 square kilometers of poppy farms in India in its fertile Ganges plains, which increased to over 200.000 hectares by 1900.[22] This diversion of food crop land to cash crop use, state scholars, led to massive famines over the 1850 to 1905 period.[23][24]

Major irrigation canals were built after millions of people died each in a series of major famines in the 19th century in British India.[8][24] In 1900, British India (including Bangladesh and Pakistan) had about 13 million ha under irrigation. In 1901 the Viceroy, Lord Curzon, appointed a Commission chaired by Sir Colin Scott-Moncrieff to draw up a comprehensive irrigation plan for India. In 1903 the Commission's report recommended irrigation of an additional 2.6 million hectares.[25][26] By 1947, the irrigated area had increased to about 22 million ha.[8] In Northwestern British India region alone, with the colonial government's effort, 2.2 million hectares of previously barren land was irrigated by 1940s, most of which is now part of Pakistan.[27] Arthur Cotton led some irrigation canal projects in the Deccan peninsula, and landmarks are named after him in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. However, much of the added irrigation capacity during the colonial era was provided by groundwater wells and tanks, operated manually.[28]

One of the sections of Bhakra Canal system in north India. This canal network irrigates over 4 million hectares of land.[29]

India's irrigation covered crop area was about 22.6 million hectares in 1951, and it increased to a potential of 90 mha at the end of 1995, inclusive of canals and groundwater wells.[30] However, the potential irrigation relies of reliable supply of electricity for water pumps and maintenance, and the net irrigated land has been considerably short. According to 2001/2002 Agriculture census, only 58.13 million hectares of land was actually irrigated in India.[31] The total arable land in India is 160 million hectares (395 million acres). According to the World Bank, only about 35% of total agricultural land in India was reliably irrigated in 2010.[2]

The ultimate sustainable irrigation potential of India has been estimated in a 1991 United Nations' FAO report to be 139.5 million hectares, comprising 58.5 mha from major and medium river-fed irrigation canal schemes, 15 mha from minor irrigation canal schemes, and 66 mha from groundwater well fed irrigation.[30]

India's irrigation is mostly groundwater well based. At 39 million hectares (67% of its total irrigation), India has the world's largest groundwater well equipped irrigation system (China with 19 mha is second, USA with 17 mha is third).[1]

India has spent ₹ 16,590 crore on irrigation development between 1950 and 1985. Between 2000-2005 and 2005-2010, India proposed to invest a sum of ₹ 1,03,315 crore (INR) and ₹ 2,10,326 crore (INR) on irrigation and flood control in India.[32]

Statewise irrigation types, capacity and actual

State Total crop area
(million hectares) 		Groundwater irrigation
crop area
(million hectares) 		Canal irrigation
crop area
(million hectares) 		Total crop area
actually irrigated
(million hectares)
Andhra Pradesh 14.3 2.5 2.7 4.9
Arunachal Pradesh 0.4 0.07 0.05
Assam 3.2 0.13 0.1 0.22
Bihar 6.4 2.2 1.3 3.5
Chhattisgarh 5.1 0.17 0.74 0.85
Goa 0.1 0.1 0.1
Gujarat 9.9 3.1 0.5 3.2
Haryana 3.6 1.99 1.32 3.26
Himachal Pradesh 1.0 0.02 0.09 0.11
Jammu & Kashmir 0.9 0.02 0.38 0.37
Jharkhand 3.2 0.11 0.13 0.24
Karnataka 12.2 1.43 1.33 2.38
Kerala 1.5 0.18 0.21 0.39
Madhya Pradesh 15.8 2.74 1.70 4.19
Maharashtra 19.8 3.12 1.03 3.36
Manipur 0.2 0.05 0.05
Meghalaya 0.3 0.06 0.06
Mizoram 0.1 0.01 0.01
Nagaland 1.1 0.1 0.07
Odisha 4.9 0.17 1.07 1.24
Punjab 4.0 3.06 0.94 3.96
Rajasthan 21.1 3.98 1.52 5.12
Sikkim 0.1 0.01 0.01
Tamil Nadu 6.5 1.61 1.43 2.66
Tripura 0.3 0.02 0.05 0.07
Uttar Pradesh 17.6 10.64 4.21 14.49
Uttarakhand 0.8 0.22 0.14 0.35
West Bengal 5.5 2.09 1.22 2.98
All India 159.6 39.43 22.48 58.13

Note: The All India total includes land area for Union Territories of India that is not shown in the above table.

Project classification

An irrigation canal in western Rajasthan.

Irrigation Projects in India are classified on three major aspects into:[citation needed]
1. Minor Irrigation Projects
2. Medium Irrigation Projects
3. Major Irrigation Projects

Since 1950, irrigation works were classified on the basis of cost incurred for the projects' implementation, governing and dissemination. However, the Planning Commission of India adopted the classification of projects on the basis of culturable command area (CCA).

See also

References

  1. ^ a b S. Siebert et al (2010), Groundwater use for irrigation – a global inventory, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 14, pp. 1863–1880
  2. ^ a b Agricultural irrigated land (% of total agricultural land) The World Bank (2013)
  3. ^ Economic Times: How to solve the problems of India's rain-dependent on agricultural land
  4. ^ National Water Development Agency Ministry of Water Resources, Govt of India (2014)
  5. ^ a b c d e BN Puri, IRRIGATION AND AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN ANCIENT INDIA, Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Vol. 48/49 (1968), pp. 383-390
  6. ^ a b Hoiberg, Dale (2000). Students' Britannica India. Encyclopædia Britannica. p. 260. ISBN 978-0-85229-760-5.
  7. ^ Gopal, Lallanji (2008). History of agriculture in India, up to c. 1200 A.D. p. 762. ISBN 978-81-8069-521-6.
  8. ^ a b c d e India - History of Irrigation FAO - United Nations (2014)
  9. ^ White, David (2014). The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali: a biography. Princeton University Press. p. 139. ISBN 978-0-691-14377-4.
  10. ^ Patañjali (Transl: Chip Hartranft) (2003). The Yoga-Sūtra of Patañjali: a new translation with commentary. Boston: Shambhala Publications. p. 62. ISBN 978-1-59030-023-7.
  11. ^ Husain Siddiqui, Iqtidar, and Husain Siddiqui, Iqtidar. “Water Works and Irrigation System in India During Pre-Mughal Times.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 29 (1986): 52–78
  12. ^ Smith, R. (1849). Canals of irrigation in the North Western Provinces of India / [by R. Baird Smith]. Calcutta: Calcutta Review, 1-20
  13. ^ Praveen Singh (2003), Colonising the Rivers: Colonial Technology, Irrigation and Flood Control in North Bihar, 1850–1950, Ph.D. thesis (Jawaharlal Nehru University), pp. 198–261
  14. ^ Neil Charlesworth, British Rule and the Indian Economy, 1800-1914 (1981) pp 23-37
  15. ^ Ian Stone, Canal Irrigation in British India: Perspectives on Technological Change in a Peasant Economy (2002) pp 278-80
  16. ^ for the historiography, see Rohan D’Souza, "Water in British India: the making of a ‘colonial hydrology’." History Compass (2006) 4#4 pp: 621-628. online
  17. ^ David Gilmour (2007). The Ruling Caste: Imperial Lives in the Victorian Raj. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 9.
  18. ^ Thorner (1962), ‘Deindustrialization’ in India, 1881–1931, In: D. Thorner, and A. Thorner (Editors), Land and Labour in India, ISBN 978-8180280214
  19. ^ T. Roy, London School of Economics, Globalization, Factor Prices and Poverty in Colonial India, Australian Economic History Review, Vol. 47, No. 1, pp. 73-94 (March 2007)
  20. ^ Sarkar (1983), The colonial economy, In: S. Sarkar (Editor) Modern India: 1885–1947, Macmillan, ISBN 978-0333904251
  21. ^ National and English Review, Volume 6, p. PA480, at Google Books, WH Allen & Co, London
  22. ^ a b The Parliamentary Debates, Volume 348, p. 1058, at Google Books, Hansard's, HM Government, Great Britain (14 August 1890), pp. 1054-1061
  23. ^ Maddison, A. (1970), The historical origins of Indian poverty, PSL Quarterly Review, 23(92), pp. 31-81
  24. ^ a b Richard Hunt (1997), To End Poverty - The Starvation of the Periphery by the Core, Oxford, UK, ISBN 978-0952887201, pp. 145-148
  25. ^ "Scott-Moncrieff Commission". www.britannica.com. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
  26. ^ Scott-Moncrieff, Sir Colin Campbell (1903). Report of the Indian Irrigation Commission, 1901-1903. London: H. M. Stationery Office.
  27. ^ Jin-Bee Ooi (1983). Natural resources in tropical countries. Singapore: Singapore University Press. p. 350. ISBN 978-9971-69-063-2.
  28. ^ Edward Balfour, The Cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia at Google Books, pp. 377-380
  29. ^ Himachal Pradesh & Punjab - Bhakra and Gobindsagar FAO - United Nations
  30. ^ a b Irrigation in India FAO, United Nations
  31. ^ Net Irrigated Area FAO, United Nations
  32. ^ "PDF on 10th 5-Year Plan of India(2002-2007)" (PDF).

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