DEVELOPMENT OF IRRIGATION IN INDIA

Among Asian countries, India has the most important arable land which is close to 40 per cent of Asia’s arable land (6). Only USA has more arable land than India. Irrigation has been practiced throughout the planet since the early days of civilization. In India too, conservation for irrigation has received much attention since the beginning of civilization. The Grand Anicut across the river Cauvery was inbuilt the second century. At the start of the 19th century, there were a large number of water tanks in peninsular India and several inundation canals in northern India. The Upper Ganga canal, the Upper Bari Doab canal and therefore the Krishna and Godavari delta systems were constructed between 1836 and 1866. The famines of 1876–78, 1897–98 and 1899–1900 led to the fixing of the first Irrigation Commission in 1901 to ascertain the usefulness of irrigation as a way of protection against famine and to assess the extent of irrigation development required and therefore the scope for further irrigation work. At this time (1901) the entire gross irrigated area was only 13.3 Mha which increased to 22.6 Mha in 1950 as a results of a spurt in protective irrigation schemes (8).

The Bengal famine of 1943 underlined the urgency of accelerating agricultural production to meet the needs of the growing population. After independence, the country began an era of planned development starting with the primary five-year plan in 1951. the design Commission assigned a really high priority to irrigation development for increasing agricultural production. Giant projects just like the Bhakra-Nangal, Hirakud, Damodar Valley, Nagarjunasagar, Rajasthan canal, etc. were haunted . This resulted during a great spurt in irrigation development activities and the irrigated area increased from 22.6 Mha in 1950–51 to 68 Mha in 1986–87. In June 1993, the irrigated area was 83.48 Mha i.e., 2.39 Mha quite that in June 1992. The yearwise development of irrigation potential in India since 1950–51 and up to 1994–95 is shown plotted in Fig. 1. this food grain production is slightly more than 200 million tonnes.

Fig. 1.1 Development of irrigation potential and production of food grains in India

The total ultimate irrigation potential is estimated (6) at 115.54 Mha (see Table 1.12 for statewise distribution) of which 58.47 Mha would be from major and medium irrigation schemes and the remaining from minor irrigation schemes (6).