Indias Irrigation Economy:

In the throes of a transition..

Tushaar Shah
International Water Management Institute
www.iwmi.org

Highlights

History of Indian irrigation: Three Phases and a Turning Point.

Since 1975, Indian agriculture has emerged as the worlds largest user
of groundwater to grow food and fibre.

The groundwater boom is fired by population pressure on land and

demands of intensive diversification of farming.

India and Pakistan together lost over 5 million ha of canal irrigated

areas; tubewells are canibalizing flow irrigation.

Investing in flow irrigation under BAU is throwing good money after

bad.

Indias irrigation challenge is one of managing its sub-continental aquifer

systems, a vast reservoir we have left unmanaged.

Evolution of Indian Irrigation:

Era of adaptive irrigation-upto 1830
Community was the unit of irrigation management
% Contribution to aggregate
Farm output and incomes

Rainfall and Soil moisture

Flow irrigation from tanks, canals, rivers
Lift irrigation from wells and surface sources

% of water consumptively used in agriculture

Evolution of Indian Irrigation:

Era of canal construction-1830-1970

State emerged as the architect, builder, manager of irrigation

% Contribution to aggregate
Farm output and incomes

Soil moisture management

Flow irrigation from tanks, canals, rivers
Lift irrigation from wells & surface sources

% water consumptively used in agriculture

Evolution of Indian Irrigation:

Era of atomistic pump irrigation-1970-todate

Individual farmer as the irrigation manager

% Contribution
To Farm output &
incomes

Soil moisture management

Flow irrigation
Pump irrigation from wells, tubewells, canals

% of water consumptively used in agriculture

India is the worlds largest user

of groundwater in agriculture in the world.

India has over 20

million irrigation
wells. We add 0.8
million/year.
Every fourth
cultivator owns an
irrigation well; nonowners depend on
groundwater
markets.

Groundwater share in irrigated

Areas 70% and rising
Kharif
pump

Rabi
flow

pump

flow

cereals

64.3

36.1

77.8

22.2

pulses

68.6

31.4

66.3

33.7

oilseeds

78.8

21.2

72.7

27.3

mixed crops

90.9

9.1

67.7

32.3

sugarcane

81.9

18.1

86

14

other crops

65.5

34.5

82.8

17.2

vegetables

67.4

32.6

74.9

26.1

fruit and nuts

81.9

18.1

83.9

16.1

plantation

72.7

27.3

72.9

27.1

fibre
crops70.4

70.4

29.6

86.5

13.5

fodder

79.7

20.3

86.9

13.1

other crops

84.7

15.3

59.2

41.8

69

31

76.5

23.5

all

Govt. numbers
Suggest 60%
Irrigated areas
Depend on GW,
But
National Sample Survey, 2003,
59th round:Proportion of area
under different irrigated crops
Served by pump and flow irrigation

Pump irrigation expansion is driven

by population pressure on farm lands..

Throughout the world, intensive

groundwater irrigation is a
response to water scarcity.
Not in South Asia.
Here, it is a response to
scarcity of farm lands.
The rise60%
ofofatubewells
water-scavenging
in use
Were
made during the
irrigation
economy..
1990s; numbers are
Still accelerating..

Minor Irrigation Census 2001:

Districts with high rural population density
experience intensive well irrigation

Our irrigation planning is preoccupied with food grains;

Indian farmer is diversifying in a hurry.
Canal and tank irrigated
areas condemned to lowvalue crops unresponsive to
precision irrigation.
Much diversification is
Occurring outside
Command areas (IFPRI).
Much diversification
Requires small dozes of
Year-round, on-demand
Irrigation.
Value added farming
Will expand with
Waste-water irrigation and
Groundwater.

Area irrigated by public canals are stagnant

despite growing investment in public irrigation.

Throughout South Asia, surface irrigation is giving

Way to pump irrigation. India, Pakistan and Bdesh
Lost 5.5 m ha of surface irrigation during 1994-2001

This process has gathered

Momentum since 1995
Pump irrigation is cannibalizing
flow irrigation.

Irrigation systems are unable to

Support groundwater irrigation

For sustainable irrigation, conjunctive management

of ground and surface water is essential.
Mismatch between ground and surface irrigation in India:
578 districts covered by Minor Irrigation Cesus 2001 (GoI
2005)
Line of hydrologic
equilibrium

Effective conjunctive
management
Means more well irrigation
in command
Areas.
In Indian districts, the
situation is the opposite.
Only 12% of Indias wells are
In command areas; and this
Proportion is dropping
every year

Implications: 1
Wake up to new realities.

Recognize and respond to the new reality. Governments

role as irrigation provider is no longer the most critical.
Investing in surface irrigation is throwing good money
after bad..
Irrigation reforms around PIM are doomed to failure
because flow irrigation itself is ebbing..
Irrigation Departments mission statement needs to be
rewritten.

Implications: 2
Groundwater recharge is
the game we must master.
Surface water dams deliver 150 km3/year;
aquifer system delivers 220 km3/year which is far more
productive.
Managing the sub-continental system of aquifers ought to be
Indias top priority; but this is nobodys concern.
India gets 4000 km3 of precipitation; we use
220 km3 of groundwater. Nature itself puts 4-10% of rainfall into
aquifers. If we focus recharge effort at the right places,
sustaining groundwater irrigation is possible.
The challenge is to increase recharge in arid areas (north-west)
and hardrock aquifers (peninsular India).

Implications :3

Reinvent surface irrigation management.

We need new institutional models to arrest erosion of public
irrigation commands.
What Indian farmer demands is on-farm water he can scavenge at
will for high frequency precision-irrigation; wells will always score
on canals and tanks.
Rajasthans program of lined farm ponds on Indira Gandhi Nahar
Yojana: canal water fill up the pond every 21 days; farmer run
sprinklers with it.
Gujarat governments new scheme to create local irrigation
entrepreneurs who will lay drip-irrigation infrastructure and
operate an irrigation service from public canals.
Maharashtras experiments in Northern Krishna basin.

Implications: 4
high crop/drop
Accelerate agricultural diversification
Embrace and propagate water saving farming
systems: aerobic rice, System of Rice Intensification,
Zero-tillage, alternate wet-and-dry irrigation.
Reform micro-irrigation subsidies that shrink drip-andsprinkler equipment market instead of expanding it.

Implications: 5
Practical strategy for groundwater management

Evolve a practical, implementable tool-kit for groundwater

management.
Groundwater laws are unenforceable; pricing is impractial; GW
Authoritys writ does not run in the country-side.
Indirect instruments:
Punjabs experiment with electricity supply and rice procurement
schedules to shift rice transplanting.
Gujarats Jyotirgram Yojana of rationing quality power to farmers
for irrigation;

Source: Down to Earth