The slow growth of agriculture is leading to inflationary pressures on the one hand and political disappointment of the common man on the other. To run the agricultural operation smoothly throughout the year, controlled, assured and continuous water supply through
irrigation system is very important. In the absence of irrigation facilities, agriculture is nothing more than a gamble. Since the inception of planning in India, a huge amount of investment has already been pumped for the development of irrigation projects. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram came out with various proposals to enhance the irrigation
potential of the country with enhanced outlays. Unfortunately there is no mention of steps to improve the efficiency of water use on the pattern of the proposal developed by Union Ministry of Water Resources. It is not clear one more model of water harvesting is needed while it is envisaged that More Income per Drop of Water Movement will cover every block of the country through state agricultural universities, IITs, WALMIS and ICAR institutions. In fact times have gone for pilots and what is needed is a movement for optimum utilization of every drop of water. The Central groundwater has identified 1065 assessment blocks in the country as over exploited or critical. Over 80 per cent of these blocks are in 1000 districts in seven states. The strategy for ground water recharge is to divert rain water into dug wells. Ministry of Water Resources will finalize the scheme shortly. A sum of
rs. 1800
crores will be transferred to NABARD which will be held in escrow and disbursed through lead Bank of the beneficiaries’ district. National Rain fed Area Authority (NRAA) was established to coordinate all the schemes relating to watershed development and other aspect of land use. The
budget has proposed an allocation of Rs. 100 crores for the new rain fed area development programme. To train farmers in good water management practices, Indian Council of agricultural Research (ICAR) will set up a teaching-cum-demonstration model of water harvesting in each of the 32 selected state agricultural universities and ICAR institutes. The irrigation component of Bharat Nirman aims at creation of irrigation potential of 10 million ha during 2005-06 through 2008-09 mainly through completion of ongoing major and medium irrigation projects. Utilization of completed projects/schemes is also emphasized. Further, development of new minor irrigation to cater to the requirement of specific areas, particularly to provide benefit to small and marginal farmers and dalits and tribal, has also been included in Bharat Nirman. Duping 2005-06, against the target of 1.90 million ha, the reported irrigation potential
created was 1 .45
mh. Since the inception of AIBP centre has spent a total of Rs.20598.48 cores with the states releasing an additional Rs. 15 thousand crores or so. Up to March 2006, But despite this huge public funds infusion, the country’s net irrigated area remained virtually static around 53 to 55 million hectares (mh) Alternatively, the performance of AIBP’s can be measured in terms of the irrigation potential that has been created. The irrigation potential created in the Eighth plan was only 2.22 mh, which rose to 4.22mh in the Ninth Plan and in the Tenth Plan it is likely to be 5.74 mh. Of this roughly half is on account of AIBP. This is against increase of 10 mh each recorded during 1970s and 1980’s, when there was no AIBP. During the period 1995-96 though 2005-06, irrigation potential crated was 4.04 mh with another 0.9 mh estimated to created this fiscal. All that adds to about 5 mh over a span of 11 years. With AIBP clearly not delivering the intended benefits, centre has since embarked n a new programme under Bharat Nirman to develop 10 mh of new irrigation potential between 2005-06 through 2008-09 including 5.2 mh through major and medium projects and the rest through minor schemes. The question arises: Has the benefits of this huge public funds trickled down to its beneficiary- The Indian farmers. Apparently, AIBP conferred neither acceleration nor benefit. Moreover by mixing budget allocation with banking funds, FM has created the myth of a new deal for irrigation in the budget. A special plan is being implemented over a period of three years in 31 especially distressed districts in four states with a total amount of Rs. 16979 crores. Of this about Rs. 12400 crores will be on water related schemes. But the scheme is not under implementation and water related scheme has a budget provision of Rs. 100 crores only. It is not enough that the outlays and the number of programme are increased. But the question is: why has all this not translated in to an increase in the actual irrigated area. The hard fact is that over 35 of the expenditures under AIBP were diverted, parked or misutilized among other things, as per Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report. Only time will tell that the benefits of infusion of huge public money will translate into tangible benefits to the Indian farmers or not.
More summaries about the IRIG Budget