Report No. 922a-PAK F, Pakistan A"LE c""opyG Special Agriculture Sector Review (In Five Volumes) Public Disclosure Authorized Volume II: Irrigation and Drainage January 28, 1976 General Agriculture Division South Asia Projects Department FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Document of the World Bank Public Disclosure Authorized This document has a restri ted distribution and may be used by recipients only in the pertormance of their off icial duties. Its contents may not otherwise be dist losed without World Bank authorization. CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS Rs 9.90 US$ 1.00 Rs 1.00 US$ 0.10 Rs 1.0 million = US$101,010 WEIGHTS AND MEASURES EnglishAJS Units Metric Units 1 foot (ft) = 30.5 centimeters (cm) 1 yard (yd) = 0.915 meters (m) 1 mile (mi) = 1.609 kilometers (km) 1 acre (ac) = 0.405 hectare (ha) 1 square mile (sq mi) 259 ha 1 cubic ft (cu ft) = 0.028 cubic meters (m3 ) 1 cubic yd (cu yd) 0o.765 m3 1 acre-foot (ac-ft) = 1,234 m3 1 cu ft/sec (cusec) = 0.028 m3/sec 1 pound (lb) = 0.454 kilograms (kg) 1 long ton (lg ton) = 1,016 kg C1.016 metric tons) Pakistani Units English Units Metric Units 1 maund (mds) 82.3 lb (.0367 lg ton) = 37.3 kg (.0373 m tons) 26.8 mds = 1.0 m ton 27.2 mds 1.0 lg ton GLOSSARY OF ABBREVIATIONS ADBP - Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan CCA - Culturable conianded area GOP - Government of Pakistan HYV - High-yielding variety IACA - Trrigation and Agriculture Consultants Association IBP - Indus Basin Project ISS - Indus Special Study LBOD - Left Bank Outfall Drain LIP - Lower Indus Pro4ect MAF - l4illion acre-feet NWFP - North West Frontier Province SCARP - Salinity Control and Reclamation Project UNDP - United Nations Development Programme WAPDA - Water and Power Development Authority WltC - Water Management Cell, WAPDA FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY -2- GLOSSARY OF ACRONYKS Chak - Area served by a watercourse from an irrigation outlet. Doab - Area between two rivers. Kharif - The hot (summer) season and main rainy period (mid April through mid-October). Paddy - Growing or threshed, unmilled rice. Patwari - Local watercourse official. Rabi - The cool (winter) season (mid-October through mid-April). Warabundi - Schedule for water distribution to farmers on a watercourse GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN FISCAL YEAR July 1 to June 30 This volume of the report is based on the findings of the Irrigation and Drainage Review Mission which visited Pakistan in February/April 1974. The mission consisted of Messrs. C. M. Bolt, A. J. Blackwood, H. T. Chang, W. H. Edwards, S. El Serafy, M. Fireman (Bank), F. Locher, H. Parkinson and T. A. Samuels (consultants). This document has a restricted distribution and may be used by recipients only in the performance of their official duties. Its contents may not otherwise be disclosed without World Bank authorization. PAKISTAN SPECIAL AGRICULTURE SECTOR REVIEW IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE Table of Contents Page No. I. INTRODUCTION ....................... 1 II. IRRIGATION IN PAKISTAN 1 A. The Irrigated Agriculture Setting 1 B. Surface Irrigation, Drainage and Groundwater Development 3 C. Drainage 4 D. Groundwater Development 5. 0.00*0...0........... 5 E. The Indus Waters Treaty .00..00.0*0000.0.06.00 5 F. The Indus Basin Project Works 6 G. Operation of the Indus Basin Project Works ...0... 6 Ho Tarbela Dam Project 7 III. DEVELOPMENT SITUATIONS, MODES AND CONSTRAINTS 8...... 8 A. Development Situation 8 B. Major Constraints ...0.*0....0.*.000........00 9 C. Development Modes .0......0....0. 0..0.00..... 16 IV. TOWARDS A REVISED ACTION PROGRAM ..........o......sooo 18 A. The Need for a Program 18 B. New Planning Activities 20 C. Water Distribution Patterns ..... 21 D. Special Studies ..s.. ..... *... ........ .... 22 V. FUTURE PROJECTS FOR EXTERNAL FINANCING .o........... 23 -2- ANNEXES 1. Canal Commands, Development Modes and Water Distribution 2. ISS Action Program Status 3. Preliminary List of Projects 4. UNDP Indus Basin Planning Project TECHNICAL NOTES Included in Volume II: Technical Note No. 1: The Indus Basin Surface Water System Technical Note No. 2: Soils and Groundwater Technical Note No. 3: Tubewell Development MAPS 11699 - Major Canals and Reservoirs of the Indus Basin in Pakistan 11827R- Canal Commands PAKISTAN SPECIAL AGRICULTURE SECTOR REVIEW IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE I. INTRODUCTION 1.01 One of the most significant aspects of Pakistan's fluctuating mic progress econo- since 1970 has been the generally disappointing performance the agriculture of sector. National crop production has not continued to at the grow rate achieved in 1965-70; it has not even kept pace with in the increase population. Among the actions called for to promote a renewed in upsurge farm output in Pakistan, and to reap full benefits from the massive ments invest- made under the Indus Basin and the Tarbela Projects, the Government Pakistan (GOP) of has recognized that high priority must be given to the accele- ration of its program to minimize the on-farm constraints caused by logging water- and widespread salinity of the soil. The Provincial Governments Baluchistan, of North West Frontier, Punjab, and Sind also realize that, crop if yields are to be raised above the generally low present level, thelr engineers, agriculturalists and farmers alike will have to join forces reduce to soil salinization and to ensure that limited irrigation water supplies are distributed and utilized effectively. 1.02 A Bank Irrigation and Drainage Review mission visited Pakistan February/April in 1974 to observe the results of recent activities in irrigated agricultural and water resource development, to review plans, for future development and to identify specific projects, as well as technical assistance needs for the preparation of plans and projects which might be appropriate for World Bank assistance in water resource 'development. Based on the findings of the mission, and on information which has subsequently become available, Volume II examines Pakistan's overall irrigation and drainage development situation and identifies the significant issues constraining progress. Some of the factors in the selection of priority water develop- muent projects suitable for financing by the World Bank are considered, and Volume II includes Technical Notes which contain supporting analyses on key aspects and issues of irrigated farming development in Pakistan. Water management on water courses and farms and related institutional issues are discussed in detall in Volume III. II. IRRIGATION IN PAKISTAN A. The IrriRated A&riculture SettinR 2.01 Most of Pakistan's agricultural production comes from about 30 mil- lion acres (M ac) of land cropped annually under irrigation in the Indus Basin. This farmland accounts for virtually all of the nation's production of paddy rice (3.4 M tons) and sugarcane (19.5 M tons), 90 percent of the wheat (6.6 M tons), and 95 percent of the cotton (2 M tons) 1/. The climate of the Indus Plains enables farmers to obtain two crops under irrigation each year. In kharif (the hot season between April and October, including the southeast monsoon), rice (3.5 M ac), cotton (5 M ac), sugarcane (1.5 M ac) and maize or grain sorghum (2.6 M ac) are grown. During rabi (the cool, dry season between October and April), wheat, oilseeds and gram can be grown. Since wheat is the most profitable crop at present prices and with existing technology, it is grown on suitable land wherever possible, given adequate water. As a result, about 40 percent of the irrigated land (10 M ac) is under wheat. 2.02 Much of the advance made since the mid-1960s in Pakistan's farm production was due to the development of irrigated crop technology. The large-scale introduction of high-yielding dwarf varieties of wheat, beginning in 1967, gave rise to increases of about 50 percent in irrigated wheat yields. New rice varieties, increasingly grown since 1968, brought about production increases of some 70 percent. Output of cotton has risen about 40 percent since 1967. These increases were influenced by additional farm inputs and favorable water supplies from canals and tubewells. 2.03 By world standards average crop yields in Pakistan's irrigated agriculture are low, partly due to constraints which are beyond the farmers' capabilities to remove without institutional aid. Among the most difficult problems that the great majority of farmers have to contend with are: (a) the increasingly adverse soil conditions reflected in the gradual spread of both waterlogging and salinization, and (b) untimely, unpredictable and often inadequate on-farm irrigation water supplies (see Volumes I and III). In many areas water tables have gradually risen, largely as a result of uncontrolled deep seepage of water from canals for periods of a century or more. Salts have slowly accumulated to harmful levels in the topsoil due to two causes: firstly, as a result of the short-sighted, traditional practice of applying frequently inadequate water supplies to too much land; and secondly, because of the continuous capillary rise and subsequent eva- poration of saline groundwater in the surface layers of fallow land, parti- cularly where underlying water tables have risen. There are two key, large-scale physical deficiencies within deteriorating irrigated areas; (a) the shortage of canal water at the farm level to provide for critical mid-summer crop irrigation requirements, as well as to dissolve and remove harmful, excess soil salts, and (b) the lack of sub-surface drainage for prevention of waterlogging and for harmless disposal of highly saline field drainage effluent. These contraints cannot be overcome by the unaided efforts of farmers alone; they can be removed by public investment in the enlargement of canal capacities to distribute plentiful river flows in 1/ 1972/73 data.