Unpredictable and variable rainfall makes farming in India a precarious livelihood. Across much of the country, rainfall is concentrated during the monsoon, from July to September, with the other months being dry. Farmers without irrigation struggle to grow more than one crop a year. Although much money has been invested in irrigation over the years, poor governance means these schemes have not always been as effective as they should have been.
Water to every farm
While campaigning for election in 2014, India’s governing party promised har khet ko pani (water to every farm). Once in power, Narendra Modi’s government committed USD 7.75 billion to this ambitious task under an irrigation scheme named Pradhan Mantri (Prime Minister) Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY). The IWMI-Tata Water Policy Research Program (a longstanding collaboration between IWMI and the Tata Trusts) analyzed recent irrigation reform in several Indian states, using data from various public sources. Its aims were to suggest the best pathway for implementing PMKSY and to highlight successes the scheme could emulate.
“Our findings showed that there are two low-hanging fruits that India can use to progress towards har khet ko pani,” says Tushaar Shah, senior fellow at IWMI. “The first is to strengthen irrigation governance, with the aim of bridging the widening gap between the irrigation potential that has been created and the potential that is actually used. The second is to invest in expanding groundwater irrigation where its development has previously been limited, with emphasis on minor irrigation and with improved policies for renewable energy to counteract depletion.
The IWMI-Tata Program published its findings in a special policy paper titled Har Khet Ko Pani? (Water to Every Farm?) Rethinking Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana. The paper identifies the 112 districts that are most deprived of irrigation and which should therefore be the primary focus of PMKSY. It further argues that recent irrigation reforms in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat set a good example for the scheme to follow, as opposed to those undertaken in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and other states.
A holistic approach
“The bulk of the 40 million hectares (Mha) of newly irrigated area post-1990 depends on wells, tube wells and private small-scale lift irrigation,” says Shah.
“Farmers prefer this type of irrigation, because it can be implemented quickly and cost-effectively, permitting on-farm water control all year round, in contrast with large canal irrigation systems. From 2000-01 to 2012-13, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh made massive investments in large public irrigation projects, but the index graph of irrigated area remained flat or declined. By comparison, the same graphs drawn for Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat revealed a strong upward trend, despite more modest financing.”
The expansion of irrigation in Madhya Pradesh came about after it swept away a culture of mismanagement and adopted a holistic approach to water management. A program of regular maintenance of canal systems was introduced, with stringent deadlines set for repairs and timetabled checks on progress. Also, a “tail-end first” policy was adopted. This guaranteed water to farmers located at the end of canals, provided they could prove their fields were water-ready.
Water scheduling was improved, so farmers knew exactly what they were getting and when. The irrigation department began using digital technology to improve communications. Regular video conferences kept canal managers informed, while the chief engineer kept in touch with 4,000 farmers by mobile phone.
The energy-irrigation-food nexus
IWMI’s earlier research in Gujarat had put into bold relief the beneficial impact on irrigation of restricted but high-quality farm power supply under the Jyotigram Yojana (“lighted village”) scheme. Madhya Pradesh also improved how farmers use groundwater by introducing temporary, 90-day power connections, which guarantee farmers a high-quality power supply against advance payments. This has enabled smallholders to produce more winter (Rabi) wheat. Remote sensing images prepared by IWMI indicate that, as a result of the combined canal and groundwater irrigation reforms, Madhya Pradesh’s cropped area has expanded by 1.90 Mha (an area around the size of Israel).
In May 2016, IWMI held a policy consultation at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, to present an alternative formulation for PMKSY that prioritized the 112 districts that are most deprived of irrigation. It drew on the experience of states including Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat (which had achieved an agricultural growth rate of 9% during 2000-08 after making similar reforms, on IWMI’s advice).
“Spending billions of rupees on grand irrigation projects is risky,” says Shah. “But some Indian states have managed to invest effectively in irrigation improvements, and it is important that those lessons are incorporated into the design of PMKSY.” The government has taken up key IWMI recommendations and is developing a new USD 4.61 billion scheme to accelerate the development of small-scale irrigation, focusing on 97 of the 112 high-priority districts identified in the report by the IWMI Tata Program.
