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Abstract
Surface irrigation dominates the Indian irrigation system. The total surface
waters in the country have been estimated to be around 180 million hectare
metres, out of which about 60 million hectare metres have been assessed to be
usable. The groundwater resources for irrigation have been calculated to be 26
million hectare metres. Together, they would enable 113 million hectares to be
irrigated. Up to March 1980, which marks the end of the Fifth Five-Year Plan,
57 million hectares of irrigation potential had been developed. Nearly 30 million
hectares fall under surface irrigation and the remaining is covered by
groundwater use. It is planned to add another 13 million hectares during the
Sixth Five-Year Plan (1980-85), half of which will be under surface irrigation.
While a major part of the developed groundwater potential is in the hands of
the private sector, surface irrigation is entirely owned and managed by the
public sector. The private sector exploitation of groundwater resources has been
found to be more efficient than the State owned and operated tubewells (Mellor
and Moorti). Since the public sector deals only with a small part of groundwater
resources, the costs imposed on society are less, both in absolute and relative
terms.
In the case of surface irrigation, evaluation studies have brought out their
poor performance in terms of utilization of the created potential and realization
of projected cropping patterns. Organizational and management deficiencies
have been found to be the causes behind this poor performance. Some farreaching
reforms are under way, the evaluation of whi~h is the subject of this
paper. The paper is divided into two sections. The first section offers a brief
review of the recent research findings and indicates t~e areas for reforms; the
second section evaluates some of the reform measures undertaken so far.