Working P&per No. 147 An approach to the Study ofGrrigation: Caseofakumari District D. N$rayana K. N'rayanan Nair V.C. 4 . Utnarn Centre for ~evr$~opmenkStudies Ulloor, Trivaddrum-695 011 This study would not.have Wken shape without the active cooperntion of the Irripntion orpi,hisntion in ICanyakumari di8tric.t. In particular we would like to men/tion the names of M/S. Abdul Aeiz and Jnana ;iaj (Executive Engineers), T.S. Bmachandran and R. Nataraj (Assistant Executive Engineers) , ygaraji (Hend draughtsman) R. Nnrrrynnnn and R. ~ohnnnchandrnnl(Junion En@ineors). Wo aro grnto- ful to all of them and their suppokjing personnel for their valuable help at different stages of our Ve are also grateful to seve- ral farmers, KandottanTs, representbtives of the water-user's asso- I I ciations and members of the polikiP? 1 parties, spread over the I( district for sharing their views,1 opc the irrigattion system. We are grateful to Prof. !I?;I$.K. Panikar, Director, Centre for Development Stusies, for hislk$~d,encoure~er;entand financial support in conducting this study,; lqur thanks are also due to Dr. K.N. Raj, Dr. h.Vaidyanathan'.ad4 Dr. G.N. Rao for their helpful commun~tson an cnrlicr drnft. Howd~orthc responsibility of tho . views expressed in this papers are $olely.ours. h approach fo the ddudy of Irrigation: I Case of Kanye'iari District 1 yho ob;jec.bivoof .t,llis pupkr is to dcvolop tm intograted I approach for analysing-the. ~. physical, techno-economic, organisational and institutionel aspects of irriga ion systems. The need for such . i" u.n approach arises from our innde&pte understanding.of the forcgs . brini nhout chnnges in the irrigation system nnd the manner in which agrarian economic units respond to these I I .:. ;. 2,. However, 'i study of this Lind is not very easy .because of the complexities involved in disent ngling thg interrelationship II enong the various components of anjirrigation system. In order to surmount.this difficulty, we need t.;4. formulate certain analytical devices which mckc clear distinctio s among the components of the -t ,. ' . system and %:.en proieed to il&astri'-4the same ..withconcrete case stu- ! .. dies., This is exactly what yepropa do hire., We ha& taken .- .. Ksnyskumari District: for the:case study.I' . is district was chosen . I mainly because scarcity.of wit& and,'I kc.,, consoquont crop fi~ilurosaro .,. frequent in the tail-end areas here iq,rec.ont'I years. ' 3. , While jliugrq bat' use~uln? of' OUT approach, the folllow- . in&? limitations of the study d mi& Firs&, it is hns icIl.1 ly n qutrl.i.ln -Live quuzxtitativo analysis . is sttempted anywhere in quantitative analysis I . , , of magnitudes czrried out :is -me+.... , to. of the concerned quantitative exercises minly becr~usethe ;sheer work involved is enormous. Seccndlj., wu li~rvw11ot gono in rlcl~thinto thc +2volutiou or Llie syston~and Llie dilL'c- rent aspects of the politicnl economy nssociated with it. Purther,some 8ystematicstudy of the agrarian structure in terms of 1:md ownership , , ,. ... ! I and tenancy on the one hand and the'caste structure on the ather across j I the' command area would have.been usdful in understanding the influence of these factors on the irrigation This is a. definite and important limitation of our stu&y. our paper, in its present form should be treated as- an initial ap$ to the study of irrigation. 4. The remaining part paper is arranged in the follow- ing order. Section I1 attempts mulating certain nnolyticzl devi- ces. SecFion 111 provides D of the irrigation system in Kmyakumari move from 'the abstract I1 to the specific case study. In section IV, of water sccrcity in the distSict in' takes up the Very important puestiol/of farmers' res~onseto vnler .. secrcity. The last section briefly outlines the issues that ere thrown 1. up in the earlier sections which calj for further xescnrch.,, 11. A fremework for Anel$sing Irrigation Systems 1.. An important task in anal1 sing irrigation systems is to clearly define the ,inter relation a&ng the 'component factors of the 't irrigation system, viewed in its totsi ity. This section mekes s pre- liminary afteropt' in that di.rection. ke begin with the basics of agricul- . ,. ture and place the role of irrigation!I in ,agriculture in its proper pers- .. / . pictive. ~hekwe move on to the irrigation system end its component factors. 2. We begin with the basi{sl of agriculture. The starting . .... 8.. point of all agriculture is life,'dnd the siistenance of life units dep- I , : ends 'on its interaction with its e vironment. It is through this intcr- 9 . , llc tion thlzt lif o draw3 ' i tu sustonanco from. its environment. AY royurds ,. , I any given set of life units this edvi~onment.may broadly be conceived nr the having two constituents, the physical and/biologicnl.- Ey physical envj ., .! ronment, we mean, the soil, water, tempercture ................... Segimes . ,.,., . (ind by bioloyicnl., ,we mcnn, -the of lifo as the case'muy be. , . Agriculture is .basically man's of the environment' inorder . I ;,,, to facilitate the ~rowthof life udits. ~his%maytake various forms: : . I., .. conditioning the soil, conditionin6A the availability,of plant nutrients, : 4 . ?.. :. , ., , , Similar condi etc. Thcs~?&re with rogard to the '!physical pvironmont., , ,., . , . 1 . : ,, . timing may also be thought of with regard to the biological environment With this let us go on to $lie quost!ion of irrigation. J 3. One important of, the environment is with . , . rc'@rd to wntcr. his 'is whct got!s)iy tho name or irrigation . Narrowly . put irrigation is the providing of &$sured and codtrolled supply of water i/ : '/ to panThere are three irnportuni I aspects to it: (1) Sources end , . I' . .. techniques of irripation: (2) in~t~~utions,,knd(3) organition Let , . us Lulto them up ono Gone. : I I . ~ ., .. $ I . -1.7 Needless to ndd that this de ip{tlon also incorporites the question of drainage. Sources and techniqluks of irrigatic 4. The sources of irrigatidn! nlt~ybe lnnny such as procipitntion, riverflws, springs, underground .q$t&retc. As to the techniques these aregoverned by two importent fsctdlisi First and foremost is the source if water in relation to the loc&tionjof fields an& the second is .the crop water requirement. The intelidction of thcse two fcctors govern, though on a purely technical level !(for the actual selection will oftourse, be governed by definite institutions) the type of irrigc- tion that can be. adopted. 5. Broadly the techniques of irrigction may be brought under two heads: ~rnqityflow types dnd rifting tjrpes. 'What are. common to- . these are the.socia1 activities of construction.- ti once for all acti- . 3 I ~ity,regular repair, maintenance, replacement z'.'and regulation of the flow of water in to the fields. Wiiat distinguishes one type from. zno- ther is tho source of motive power; .Gravity flbw ns the name suggests, bus its source.of power as the for e of gravity whereas any form of lifting calls for the re&& supp y of other,, moiive power. Here the . iI.. crucial factor governing the 'natube of tho lift' is the depth of the 3/ source of wnter - 6. Here it needs to be noted that in a given environment the . .. crops that can be grown s;e clearly limitid. ~urther,given the , , 1 agricultural technique& 6r. the.:methods of cultivation, the crop water ,. their timing ahd::quantun - are determined. These . , .. , -2/.: The boundary' between repair dhd' replacemen/t is rather hazy nnd one often .does not. kit& where. repair ends and replacement begins. -3 It may be int6resting to note tha'k the evolution of the steun engine, which ushered in. th.e.~.IndustrialRevolution'had one of -'a- ---a- r- ;r--.rlnnmsm'+.a.in.,+.);&-area of lifting. together with thc source and type oflirrigation immediately throw up , 11 interesting quantitative among the factors involved. - Eor ins-huce -#hex %liere exists definitb quan- titctive I catchment, loss, crop water requirements, and the area that cultivation. 7. Again star-king 'with a.daf idite .enoiroment and crop configu- . rntlun, irri~utionmeans definite changos in the envi- . ronment. These changes in turn ma.y ake the envfronmont 'conducive to . I . the growth 09 plants rvhich othkrwis would not have groM in'the envi- I ronment or they may make the environment unsuitable for the plants I vhich wcrc unrlior being grown tho;c. Thoso rin woll as othor ronsons my call for crop shifts with the i?troduction of irrigation.: Crop . .. shifts can elso take place in.a subiequent stage of .irrigation due to " . Purthcr cl~ngesin it, me change involved here is from an assured supply of controlled moisture to thd ion-availability of it - water - . scaxity in otiiri- .rux; -32 ,;2- :o=?~quent shifts in crops. The sfrik- , . ,. ~ ing diffe. ancc? bet,$eeen this. crqi shift an6 the earlier one is that , . this has teken ?lace in response ,to./watersinrcity.in an. irrigated are&. 4,. What hak been-at.lempte(i. so far is to .'placef irrigation .-1 on c propcr frame. The end points 'kore aro the environment, crop . .1. configuration .?nd'sgricultural. on the one side and the . , sources of water cn the other. gamut of irrigetdon is set I . witliin thosc end points. 1nst.itutional aspects , . 9. IrrigationitE as 'mu$ as +$1 .is man! s conditioning of the ezvironment of plant life consists.4' social activities; The first . and once ,or all activity'is,.thf: of Lhe irrigation work. Tl~o,tnnka nround construclio~~mro il;l~o conccp.Liur~ul' 1.11~ irri~t~L.i~t~t work, ie.