Poverty and Irrigation in India
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Country Report Pro-poor Intervention Strategies in Irrigated Agriculture in Asia Poverty in Irrigated Agriculture: Issues and Options India Intizar Hussain, editor Study Team/Contributors: MVK Sivamohan Christopher Scott Intizar Hussain Bouma Jetske Deeptha Wijerathne Sunil Thrikawala Country Org Logo Hussain, I. 2004. (Ed.) Pro-poor Intervention Strategies in Irrigated Agriculture in Asia: India. Colombo, Sri Lanka: IWMI. 204p. (Country report India) ISBN Number 92 90 90 547 6 poverty / land resources / water resources / irrigation programs / institutional development / institutions / organizations / irrigation management / water supply / water distribution / water policy / financing / water rates / cost recovery / irrigation systems / irrigated farming / social aspects / economic aspects / dams / constraints / river basins / catchment areas / soils / crop production / cereals / public sector / employment / investment / dams / development projects / water rights / legislation / privatization / water users’ associations / farmers’ associations / water supply / indicators / irrigation scheduling / groundwater irrigation / water allocation ii Contents List of Tables and Figures iv Acknowledgement vi Study Background 1 Part 1 – Poverty and Irrigation in India 1.1 Introduction 3 1.2 Historical and Contextual Frame 4 a. Rural poverty in India 7 b. Water and land resources of India 18 1.3 Poverty Alleviation Initiatives in India – An Overview 26 1.4 Impact of Irrigation on Poverty – Review of Evidence 30 1.5 Performance of Irrigation Project – An Overview 42 1.6 Institutional Reforms in Irrigation – An Overview 49 1.7 Summing Up 57 Part 2 – Institutional Arrangements for Irrigation Management in India 2.1 Introduction 65 2.2 National-level Institutions for Irrigation Management 66 2.3 State-level Institutions for Irrigation Management 78 2.4 Local-level Formal and Informal Institutions for Water Supply and Distribution 106 2.5 Irrigation Financing: Water Charges and Cost Recovery 112 Part 3 – Poverty in Irrigation Systems – An Analysis for Strategic Interventions 3.1 Introduction 118 3.2 Study Settings and Data 119 3.3 Poverty in Irrigated Agriculture: Spatial Dimensions 137 a. Socio Economic Features of Selected Systems 137 b. Poverty in selected Systems: Linkages and Spatial Dimensions 143 3.4 Determinants of Poverty in Irrigated Agriculture 155 3.5 Irrigation System Performance and Associated Impacts on Poverty 171 3.6 Analysis of Water Management Institutions: Implications for the Poor 181 3.7 Summary and Conclusions 188 Annexures iii List of Tables and Figures Table 1.2.1. Rural Poverty Lit trends upto 1980 09 Table 1.2.2. River Basins in India 20 Table 1.2.3. Distribution of Soils 21 Table 1.2.4. Production and Yields of Crops 22 Table 1.2.5. Public Sector Investments in Irrigation 24 Table 1.2.6. Irrigation and Utilization 25 Table 1.4.1. Irrigated Agriculture and food grain production 33 Table 1.4.2. Per hectare production in different CAD projects 34 Table 3.2.1. River flows: Krishna basin 120 Table 3.2.2. Allocation of waters : Krishna Basin 120 Table 3.2.3. Sources of Irrigation 122 Table 3.2.4. Productivity of Principal Crops 122 Table 3.2.5. Plan-wise outlays in AP – Irrigation Schemes 122 Table 3.2.6. General features of the Command Areas 125 Table 3.2.7. Salient features of the selected irrigation system 126 Table 3.2.8. Area Irrigated : Harsi System 128 Table 3.2.9. Cropping Pattern : Harsi System 128 Table 3.2.10. Area under Irrigation: Harsi Command 129 Table 3.2.11. Area under Irrigation: Halali System 129 Table 3.2.12. Cropping Pattern: Halali system 129 Table 3.2.13. Selection criteria of villages selected for study 130 Table 3.2.14. Household sampling in Irrigation systems in AP 132 Table 3.2.15. Sample size for selected systems in MP 135 Table 3.2.16. Household sampling in irrigation systems in MP 135 Table 3.3.1. Types of houses in different project areas 137 Table 3.3.2. Facilities in housing premises in project areas 138 Table 3.3.3. Halali system – MP 139 Table 3.3.4. Harsi system – MP 139 Table 3.3.5. Nagarjuna Sagar Left Command – AP 140 Table 3.3.6. Krishna Delta System - AP 141 Table 3.3.7. Employment Pattern in the four Irrigation Systems 142 Table 3.3.8 . Income Poverty Indicators for the four systems 143 Table 3.3.9. Official Poverty figures for AP and MP 144 Table 3.3.10. Expenditure poverty indicators for the four systems 144 Table 3.3.11. Who are the poor in NSLC and KDS 145 Table 3.3.12. Who are the poor in Harsi and Halali 145 Table 3.3.13. Poor Vs Non-poor landholding households in NSLC and KDS 146 Table 3.3.14. Poor Vs Non-poor landholdings in Halali 147 Table 3.3.15. Poor Vs Non-poor landholdings in Harsi 147 Table 3.3.16. Correlation between different variables and poverty per capita – Halali 148 Table 3.3.17. Correlation between different variables and poverty per capita – Harsi 148 Table 3.3.18. Distribution of Poverty in NSLC and KDS- 149 Table 3.3.19. Distribution of Poverty in Harsi and Halali 149 Table 3.3.20. Agricultural production and farm income in NSLC 150 Table 3.3.21. Agricultural production and farm income in KDS 150 Table 3.3.22. Agricultural production and farm income in Halali 150 Table 3.3.23. Agricultural production and farm income in Harsi 151 Table 3.3.24. Distribution of Landholding size over the irrigation system 151 Table 3.3.25. Socio-economic indicators for marginal, small, large farmers in NSLC 151 iv Table 3.3.26. Socio-economic indicators for marginal, small, large farmers in KDS 152 Table 3.3.27. Socio-economic indicators for poor and non-poor farmers in Halali and Harsi 153 Table 3.3.28. Average household expenditure on medicines and education in Harsi and Halali 153 Table 3.4.1. Effect of Irrigation on Poverty in two systems – Irrigated and non-irrigated 156 Table 3.4.2. Effect of Irrigation on Poverty in two systems – head, middle and tail of both systems vs non-irrigated 157 Table 3.4.3. Effect of Irrigation on Poverty in two systems- head and middle of both systems vs Tail 158 Table 3.4.4. Effect of Irrigation on Poverty in two systems(MP)- irrigated vs non-irrigated 159 Table 3.4.5. Effect of Irrigation on Poverty in two systems(MP) - head, middle and tail of both systems vs non-irrigated 160 Table 3.4.6. Effect of Irrigation on Poverty in two systems(MP) - head, and middle of both systems vs tail 161 Table 3.5.1. Productivity , equity and water supply indicators for the four irrigation Systems 172 Table 3.5.2. Productivity , equity and water supply indicators for the four irrigation systems in AP (reach-wise) 173 Table 3.5.3. Economic, financial, environmental and infrastructure sustainability Indicators 175 Table 3.5.4. Economic, financial, environmental and infrastructure sustainability indicators in AP (reach-wise) 176 Table 3.5.5. Institutional\Organizational \Management effectiveness indicators for the four irrigation systems 176 Table 3.5.6. Institutional\Organizational \Management effectiveness indicators in AP reach-wise) 177 Table 3.5.7. Water charges and collection in AP 178 Table 3.5.8. Crop Productivity before and after PIM 179 Table 3.5.9. Assessment of Impact of PIM 179 Figure 1.2.1. Change in Rural Poverty 1983-2000 17 Figure 1.2.2. Change in Urban Poverty - 1983 – 2000 17 Figure 2.5.1. Structure of the Irrigation Department 114 Figure 2.5.2. Structure of the Department of Water Resources 115 Figure 3.2.1. Irrigated area under major , medium, and minor irrigation in AP 123 Figure 3.2.2. Schematic map showing major and minor distributaries in KDS 133 v Acknowledgement We are thankful to Dr Kishor Goswami who worked as research analyst on the project for a short term for meticulously crosschecking the survey data and calculating poverty figures in Andhra Pradesh (AP). Thanks are due to several government officers in AP and MP (Madhya Pradesh) for providing support during field work and all the level officials, academia, NGOs and representatives of farmers who interacted with the study teams at different points of time. Thanks are also due to all the librarians, government officials and academia who helped us in identifying literature sources and other documents. We are thankful to Dr. Ranjitha Puskur, Special Project Scientist, IWMI, for her valuable suggestions in the preparation of this report. Contribution from Deeptha Wijerathne and Sunil Thrikawala in quantitative analysis is also gratefully acknowledged. This work is carried out in collaboration with national partners, SRIJAN in Madhya Pradesh and IRDAS (Institute of Resource Development and Management) in Andhra Pradesh. We are thankful to Mr. P Narayana, Mr. M Surender Reddy and Mr. B Ram Kumar for their help and comments. Ms. R Navanitha, apart from providing secretarial assistance, provided help in analysis of data. We record our deep appreciation and thanks to her. vi Study Background Agriculture in India as a whole has made remarkable progress over the past three decades. The average annual growth recorded in agriculture and allied sectors (forestry, and fishing) during the post reform years 1992-93 to 1999-2000 was 3.9 percent compared to 3.6 percent in the period 1980-81 and 1991-92 (at 1993-94 prices). Even if growth in food grains, the most dominant segment of crop agriculture, decelerated from 2.9 percent to 2 percent in the post reform period (while population growth rate is 2.1 percent, according to the population census of 2001), there has been a high growth maintained in wheat (3.6 %) and even rice (2.2 %) leading perhaps to the problem of excess stock of food grains (nearly 44 million tons).