Assessment of the Impact of Nrega on Pond Irrigation

International Journal of Food, Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences ISSN: 2277-209X (Online) An Open Access, Online International Journal Available at http://www.cibtech.org/jfav.htm 2014 Vol. 4 (1) January-April, pp.116-126/Das Research Article ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF NREGA ON POND IRRIGATION: A CASE STUDY ON BLOCKS OF BIRBHUM DISTRICT, WEST BENGAL, INDIA *Mridul Das Department of Geography, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan - 731235, West Bengal, India *Author for Correspondence

ABSTRACT NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005) is being eulogized by many in the academic, development and policy arena as a silver bullet for eradicating rural poverty and unemployment, but in this paper the effect of this policy on the micro irrigation practices is highlighted. The work undertaken in this policy such as digging new ponds or de-silting of ponds etc. has great impact on water availability and sustenance in the rural small water bodies. In rural India, ponds have been playing very vital role in economic and socio-cultural aspects and it also maintaining the eco-environmental sustainability. To show the viability of NREGA policy, study has done at two blocks of Birbhum district of West Bengal, selecting one from a drought prone area and other from flood affected area. Comparative study on the irrigational practices between pre and post NREGA implementing period has highlighted the pond irrigation status of the villages. The incorporation of the environment sustaining suggestions of the local people and experts will enrich such type of government’s rural development programmes.

Keywords: Pond Irrigation, NREGA, Cost-Benefit Ratio, Viability of Policy

INTRODUCTION Irrigation is the artificial application of water to the soil. It is very essential in the dry areas and lean periods of the season, for the growth of agricultural crops, maintenance and re-vegetation of the soil. Use of irrigation is an effect measure to enhance the production of crops and the study areas are highly primary activity based so the use of it is very vital one. In the first half of the 20th century, in a large part of West Bengal, tanks were the primary source of irrigation. These small earthen reservoirs stored runoff from the catchments and water diverted from rivers during rainy season. Nowadays various types of irrigation are practiced like river lift, canal, lake, pond, waterfall etc. (surface irrigation) and deep shallow tube well based etc. (subsurface or spot irrigation). But pond is one of the ancient and effective irrigation methods for micro irrigation (Ghosh, 2012). Among two block of Birbhum, Khoyrasole is drought prone where ponds are practices highly as sources of irrigation, but Labpur is water abundant area, where rivers and canals are primarily used for irrigation. One of the most important government implemented plan is National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), the Act passed by the Lok Sabha on 23 August 2004 and was signed by the President of India on 5 September 2005. The law was initially called the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and was renamed with the prefix Mahatma Gandhi on 2 October 2009, Gandhi's birth anniversary (GOI). The scheme provides a legal guarantee for at least 100 days of paid employment in every financial year to adult members of any household willing to do unskilled manual work. Under 100 days work government highly stressed on water management i.e. water conservation and water harvesting (Digging of new ponds, percolation tanks, canal, De-silting of ponds, old canal, traditional open well etc). It has a great impact on rural pond maintenance and its water holding capacity. After implementation of this act the pond based irrigation has energized in the drought prone rural areas (Bassai and Kumar, 2010). But the expenditure of this programme for pond digging and de-silting is almost same in the two blocks of the study area. Therefore in this paper the author has tried to analyze the importance and effectiveness of pond based irrigation and the impact of NREGA on pond irrigation in the study area. © Copyright 2014 | Centre for Info Bio Technology (CIBTech) 116

Figure 1 Objectives:  To study the nature of irrigation practices of the study area.  To evaluate the suitability of the type of the irrigation of the study area.  To examine the potentiality of pond based irrigation system in the study area.  To examine the impact of NREGA on pond irrigation. Methods:  Pre-field: Consultation of SOI Toposheets (73 M/1, 73M/2, 73 M/5, 73 M/6, 73M/9, 73 M/10, 73 M/13), Google Images, Satellite Images, previous literatures, articles etc. To get information regarding the working plan of NREGA the website www.nrega.nic.in has consulted. © Copyright 2014 | Centre for Info Bio Technology (CIBTech) 117

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS Status of Pond in the Study Area The temporal change of pond in the study area have detected from Toposheet (1972) and Google Earth (2013). The area and number of ponds has increased due to the implementation of 100 days programme of NREGA. Although some amount of ponds are derelicted due to lack of maintenance or clogged due to domain of human architect. Spatial distribution pattern of Ponds The pond size and their concerned area of the blocks have similarity with the normal impoundments all over world. Small impoundments have covered greater area and number relating to the bigger one (Chaney et al., 2012). The summery of size wise distribution of ponds of the study area are given in table 1 and 2. The average pond area of Khoyrasole block is 65.64 ha and ranging from 43.94 ha in Lokepur gram panchayat to 102.23 ha in Parsundi gram Panchayat. In case of Labpur block average pond area is 56.72 ha and ranging from 21.34 ha in Thiba gram panchayat to 87.67 ha in Bipratikuri gram Panchayat. Ponds area between 0.5 - 1 hectare has covered maximum area and frequency among different size of the ponds and that is applicable in both of the blocks. Which indicates private ownership of the pond and most of the ponds are very shallow and low water holding capacity.

Table 1: Size wise distribution of Pond in Khoyrasole Block (2013) Size of the Ponds in Hectares Total Area in Gram <.5 .5 – 1 1 – 2 >2 Hectares Panchayats No. Area No. Area No. Area No. Area No Area 1. Babuijore 99 32.14 42 28.42 7 09.27 2 06.96 150 76.79 2. Barrah 82 24.31 26 17.00 4 05.77 1 03.93 113 51.01 3. Hazratpur 88 25.82 29 18.81 3 04.19 - - 120 48.82 4. Kendgare 98 25.38 14 08.80 4 05.18 3 11.50 119 50.86 5. Khoyrasole 86 27.91 16 10.08 3 04.25 2 04.71 107 46.95 6. Lokepur 89 24.54 24 16.67 2 02.43 - - 115 43.94 7. Nakrakonda 93 28.78 27 18.13 4 05.32 2 06.25 126 58.48 8. Parsundi 214 61.86 45 29.69 7 08.52 1 02.16 267 102.23 9. Punchra 168 47.63 29 18.86 10 14.18 1 05.45 208 46.09 10. Rupuspur 141 42.37 21 13.43 2 02.82 2 06.06 166 50.03 Source: Calculated by author from SOI Toposheet and Google Earth

In case of Khoyrasole block the numbers of ponds are increased with lowering of surface but in Labpur the ponds are scarce due to high amount of stream and cannel portion .The large size ponds are mainly governed by the multi ownership and government facilitated, basically use for inland fisheries. Water holding capacity of the pond and size of the ponds are also depends on the existing geological character and their resulting base soil character (Munsiri et al., 1995).

Temporal changes in the number of ponds It has been observed that, the number of ponds increases with the passage of time. Recently under 100 Days Working Programmes a lot of ponds have been excavated. Although some ponds have been clogged due to the domain of human architect but most of the ponds are in good condition to deliver its multifarious usability. From table 3 both the block has the positive change of the frequency of ponds compare to the 1972 toposheet. On an average the change of the frequency of ponds per gram panchayats are greater in Khoyrasole block (14) than the Labpur block (9).

Table 3: Temporal Changes in the number of ponds Name of the Block Total No. of Present Name of the Block Total No. of Present (Khoyrasole) Ponds (1971-72) (2012) (Labpur) Ponds (1971-72) (2012) 1. Babuijore 132 150 1. Bipratikuri 233 242 2. Barrah 101 113 2. Chowhatta-I 137 145 3. Hazratpur 109 120 3. Chowhatta-II 153 161 4. Kendgare 105 119 4. Dawarka 187 194 5. Khoyrasole 92 107 5. Hatia 135 146 6. Lokepur 99 115 6. Indus 189 195 7. Nakrakonda 117 126 7. Jamna 96 105 8. Parsundi 249 267 8. Kurunnahar 133 143 9. Punchra 191 208 9. Labpur-I 101 115 10. Rupuspur 146 166 10. Labpur-II 113 129 11. Thiba 54 60 Total 1345 1491 Total 1531 1635 Source: Calculated by author from SOI Toposheet and Google Earth

Nature of irrigation sources Khoyrasole block is located in the border of Jharkhand and West Bengal, which is just beneath the plateau frinz region, mainly having the porous soil, rapid drainage and rainfall is also low (<800 mm) system. When the rainfall is scarce the cultivators divide their field into numerous tiny plots and use the pond water as the source of irrigation.

Gram Panchayats Total Area (in Irrigated by (in Percentage) Total Irrigated area Hectare) (in Hactare) GC TW TWE TK R W PC O

1. Babuijore 3835.0 ------

2. Barrah 1665.6 - - - 95.29 1.20 3.51 - - 257.1 (15.45%)

3. Hazaratpur 1667.5 100 ------26.3 (1.57%)

4. Kendgare 2997.4 1.96 - - 62.65 5.05 28.38 1.96 - 81.4 (2.71%)

5. Khoyrasole 1797.5 19.14 - - 48.25 12.96 15.43 - 4.22 97.2 (5.41%)

6. Lokepur 2710.9 - 21.86 20.05 41.91 16.18 - - - 137.2 (5.06%)

7. Nakrakonda 2406.5 40.52 - - 40.52 12.41 6.55 - - 42.7(1.77%)

8. Punchra 3936.2 67.03 12.46 - 15.00 0.25 4.39 - 0.87 323.4(8.21%)

9. Parsundi 3341.5 - 5.48 1.85 56.88 26.79 9.00 - - 221(6.61%)

10. Rupuspur 2805.4 - - - 97.53 - 2.47 - - 113.5(4.04%)

Source: Compiled from District Census Data and District Statistical Handbook. N.B. GC - Governmental Canal, TW – Tubewell (without Electricity), TWE – Tubewell (with electricity), TK – Tank, R – River Lift, W – Well (without electricity), PC – Private Canal, O – Others.

Table 5: Irrigation source distribution of different Gram Panchayats of Labpur Gram Total Area Irrigated by (in Percentage) Total Irrigated Panchayats (in area (in Hectares) GC TW TWE TK R O Hactares) 1. Bipratikuri 2833.5 77.97 9.22 12.26 5.46 - - 2039.3 (71.97%) 2. Chowhatta-I 2637.8 99.73 - 0.27 - - - 1103.5 (41.83%) 3. Chowhatta-II 2310.4 91.63 5.65 2.72 - - - 1040.3 (45.02%) 4. Dawarka 2115.8 100 - - - - - 1580.8 (74.71%) 5. Hatia 2504.8 98.42 0.05 1.53 - - - 1917.6 (76.56%) 6. Indus 2706.4 100 - - - - - 1733.7 (64.06%) 7. Jamna 2108.3 99.08 - - 0.92 - - 1055.8 (50.08%) 8. Kurunnahar 2806.9 47.12 - 1.75 - 6.13 45 1827.7 (65.11%) 9. Labpur-I 1997.6 100 - - - - - 996.6 (49.89%) 10. Labpur-II 1962.8 100 - - - - - 1207.9 (61.53%) 11. Thiba 2347.6 61.33 - - 2.40 11.09 25.18 1288.9 (54.90%) Source: Compiled from District Census Data and District Statistical Handbook. N.B. GC - Governmental Canal, TW – Tubewell (without Electricity), TWE – Tubewell (with electricity), TK – Tank, R – River Lift, W – Well (without electricity), PC – Private Canal, O – Others.

Labpur block is locates in the highly flood prone zone of Brakreswar and Kopai river confluence. The area consisting of older alluvium soil, flood plain and rainfall is also moderate (>1200mm). Where the availability of Canal and River are ample so people highly depends river lift irrigation or government and private canal based irrigation. From table 2 most of the GP are highly irrigated by government canal (47.12% to 100 %), Bipratikuri and Chowhatta-Mohodari-II has some tube well irrigation facility (9.22% and 5.65% respectively). Only Bipratikuri has some pond based irrigation (5.46%) otherwise all block has negligible or no irrigation from pond. From above table we can say that the proportion of irrigated land is very high in respect to the total area of the block. Farmers mainly use conservation method of rainwater for aman rice cultivation. Use canal and river water for irrigation (boro paddy, vegetable, mustered etc.) in the lean season. Cost-Benefit status of pond irrigation: To identify the cost and benefit ratio of pond based irrigation some sample ponds are selected and questionnaire survey highlights the importance of micro irrigation in rural agriculture. The samples are taken randomly from the study area and results are shown in table 6. © Copyright 2014 | Centre for Info Bio Technology (CIBTech) 121

No of Cost of Cost of pond Gross return Location Pond area Command area Net return Crops Grown Farmers Cultivation irrigation from the land of Pond (sq.km) (Bigha) (Rs.) Involved (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.)

P1 0.015 7.2 Rabi pluses, Oilsheed 12 22100 6400 57060 28560 (mustered, Rapeseed) Horticulture Crops (Bringal, Curbits, Okra)

P2 0.026 8.6 Wheat, Potato, Rabi 15 25200 6800 67270 35270 pulses, Bringal

P3 0.0085 5.7 Potato, Bringal, 11 16300 5500 45340 23540 Cauliflawer

P4 0.0073 5 Rabi pulses and 9 15100 5200 41650 21350 Oilseeds, Cabbage

P5 0.0097 6 Wheat, Potato, Bringal 14 18500 5900 49600 25200

P6 0.0061 4.3 Rabi pulses and 12 14900 4800 42290 22590 Oilseeds, Cabbage

P7 0.012 4.2 Mustered, Bringal, 10 15200 4300 39370 19870 Cabbage, Cauliflower

P8 0.0079 3 Wheat, Potato, Rabi 7 14400 3200 38240 20640 pulses, Oilseeds

International Journal of Food, Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences ISSN: 2277-209X (Online) An Open Access, Online International Journal Available at http://www.cibtech.org/jfav.htm 2014 Vol. 4 (1) January-April, pp.116-126/Das Research Article However, Pond water does not use for Summer crop cultivation in these sample sites, but questionnaire survey approved that Spring oilseeds, moog, Til, Sunflower, Tur (Arhar), Chille, Potato, Cabbage etc. are some of the major crops that, benefits from those sample ponds and the net return is also reasonable. The farmers use the pond water mostly lifting by China pump and only owners of the ponds are using the water. Although the farmers of the sample sites of Labpur are not so much desperate to use pond water for cultivation of their crops during spring time, rather they prefer to use Canal, River and Tube well or Submersal for irrigation. Impact of NREGA on pond Irrigation The major objectives of NREGA are water conservation and water harvesting, renovation of traditional water bodies, provision of irrigation facilities to land owned by household of SC/ST or IAY/BPL beneficiaries etc are some prime work in the rural area under 100 days programme (Government of India, 2010). There are many positive and negative drawbacks regarding the effect of this scheme (Sjoblom and Farrington, 2008). Proportion of expenditure on pond out of total expenditure is calculated in both blocks which show the essentiality of the NREGA act in pond based irrigation. Trend of Pond Irrigation Trend of pond irrigation are gradualy extinct in West Bengal after implementation of canel, submersal and deep tube well, but it the sole source of irrigation upto 1950-60. Now again the shine of hope rises after the implementation of NREGA. Area of pond based irrigation gradually increases in both drought prone and water affluent area because of the grater emphasis on the concept of rainwater harvesting and declining quantity and quality of ground water. To show the impact of NREGA three base years are choosen 2004 (just before the implementation of the programme), 2008 (after implementation of NREGA) and 2012 (for recent data), the result (Figure 2 and 3) shows that on an average about 10 to 20 hectare area under pond irrigation has increased in grampanchayats of Khoyrasole.

Source: Irrigation dept. Suri Figure 2

Most imortantly in Labpur the pond irrigation area has signifiantly increased inspite of other irrigation sources. Panchayats who are not use pond water as irrigation water before NREGA, they now use it although the area is very small. Bipratikuri has the highest increase of pond irrigation as this gram panchayat is known for its pond irrigation. But the gram panchayats like Chowhatta-I, Dwarka, Hatia, Labpur-I etc. are using the available pond water sources for their irrigation after implementation of NREGA. © Copyright 2014 | Centre for Info Bio Technology (CIBTech) 123

Source: Irrigation dept. Suri Figure 3

Expenditure scenario During 2010-2013 NREGA allotted lots of money for the development of rural areas of both of blocks. In Khoyeasole Out of the total expenditure pond excavation, desilting, renovation of traditional water body etc related work consumes more than 50%. Lokepur, Rupuspur, and Barrah has more than 60% of the total expenditure, most of the other Gram Panchayats has 50- 55% of the total expenditure and lowest expenditure found in Kendgare 46.23%.

Source: Data compiled from MoRD statistics and NCAER-PIF Study 2013 Figure 5

Conclusion NREGA has a multidimensional impact on society namely socio-economic, traditional as well as political, but it most influences the rural sector of the country. Pond or tank irrigation is India’s traditional irrigation system, but due to commercialization and population explosion it becomes neglected. In southern India the tanks are managed by both community and government sector, but there are no such attempted to restore the age old tradition. From this paper we can say that these government schemes are very fruitful to encourage the reclamation process of pond irrigation in Eastern India as well as West Bengal.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For the present article I am extremely grateful to my friends and students who have helped me a lot for the field data collection. I express my deep gratitude to the villagers of the sample site who has given me useful information during questionnaire survey. Last but not the least I must extend my sincere thanks to Prof. Sutapa Mukhopadhyay who helped me for framing the work.

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