Overview

History of irrigation reforms in India dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. A number of studies have addressed to the need and process of reforms but these largely ended with two rhythmic suggestions involving pricing of irrigation water and participatory management of the sources of irrigation. It is startling to note that most of these solutions are a century old. The authors have provided evidence that these reform solutions began from the very First Irrigation Commission Report of 1903, and continued thereafter, reappearing periodically almost after every two decades albeit with fragmentary success. This study integrates efforts of the authors incorporating more than a decade's sustained work addressing to the question of irrigation reforms in the current context. The authors preferred not to take the usually traded path and at the same time not totally avoiding it analytically. Here's a study that covers the entire canvass of irrigation development in India and addresses the issues for further analysis. It dwells over the specific problem of irrigation, to provide the technically feasible and economically viable solutions under declining availability of water and increasing demand for it. The study incorporates analysis of the nexus between poverty and irrigation as well as agricultural wages in the context of irrigation, an area hitherto neglected by irrigation analysts. Finally, it deals with the participatory irrigation management and power subsidy issues in a most candid manner to suggest a path for reforms under the present conditions of scarce water availability and market orientation.

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Reviews

Irrigation means different things in the different agro-economic regimes in India from flood irrigation to drips. This book describes this in vivid detail and lays out the road map as India grapples with land and water scarcity in order to meet its growing needs for a larger population backed by higher purchasing power. It will be the source book for the practitioner, the policy-maker, the teacher and the researcher. Its prescriptions can be ignored only at peril to the Indian future. - Yoginder K. Alagh This is a welcome addition to serious, as opposed to polemical, literature on irrigation. Besides an informative review of the historical evolution of ideas on irrigation in India, it discusses specific issues of contemporary relevance based on Maharashtra's irrigation experience, the role of drip irrigation as a solution to water scarcity and the impact of irrigation on rural employment and wages. - A. Vaidyanathan

"Irrigation means different things in the different agro-economic regimes in India from flood irrigation to drips. This book describes this in vivid detail and lays out the road map as India grapples with land and water scarcity in order to meet its growing needs for a larger population backed by higher purchasing power. It will be the source book for the practitioner, the policy-maker, the teacher and the researcher. Its prescriptions can be ignored only at peril to the Indian future. - Yoginder K. Alagh """"This is a welcome addition to serious, as opposed to polemical, literature on irrigation. Besides an informative review of the historical evolution of ideas on irrigation in India, it discusses specific issues of contemporary relevance based on Maharashtra's irrigation experience, the role of drip irrigation as a solution to water scarcity and the impact of irrigation on rural employment and wages."""" - A. Vaidyanathan"

Author Information

A Narayanamoorthy is currently working as Reader and Officer-in-Charge, Agro-Economic Research Centre, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (Deemed to be a University), Pune. Dr. Narayanamoorthy has been working in the area of irrigation including micro irrigation and watershed management over the last 15 years. He has published over 75 research articles in both international and Indian journals, and completed over a dozen research projects mainly in the area of irrigation. He has also acted as a consultant for a project on Impact of Irrigation in India: An Aggregate Level Analysis sponsored by the International Water Management Institute, Colombo. He has co-authored two books: An Appraisal of Watershed Development Programme Across Regions in India and State of the Indian Farmer: A Millennium Study (Vol.3: Water Resources) sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India and published by Academic Foundation (2004). R S Deshpande is currently Professor and Head of the Agricultural Develop-ment and Rural Transformation (ADRT) Unit of the Insti-tute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore. Beside 29 years of research and teaching experience, Professor Deshpande has served on various policy bodies of Government of India and Government of Karnataka, and has been consultant to several national and international organisations. Prof. Deshpande was one of the three coordinators for the Ministry of Agriculture sponsored 27-volume mega study State of the Indian Farmer: A Millennium Study published by Academic Foundation (2004). He co-authored two of the volumes under the Millennium Study, namely Vol. 9: Crops and Cultivation and Vol. 23: NGOs and Farmers' Movements. Having several other books to his credit, he has published extensively on agricultural development, WTO and its impact on agriculture, droughts and drought mitigation, farmers' movements, irrigation and watershed development. His current academic interests include: farmers suicides in India, droughts and natural disasters, WTO and its impact on agriculture, and watershed development. Prof. Deshpande is currently a member of the Karnataka Agricultural Prices Commission and an Expert Group on WTO and Agriculture under the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India.

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