Irrigation in India includes a network of major and minor canals from Indian rivers,
groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...
well
A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...
based systems, tanks, and other
rainwater harvesting
Rainwater harvesting (RWH) is the collection and storage of rain, rather than allowing it to run off. Rainwater is collected from a roof-like surface and redirected to a tank, cistern, deep pit (well, shaft, or borehole), aquifer, or a reservoir w ...
projects for agricultural activities. Of these groundwater system is the largest.
[ In 2013–14, only about 36.7% of total agricultural land in ]India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
was reliably irrigated,[ and remaining 2/3 cultivated land in India is dependent on ]monsoon
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...
s.[ 65% of the irrigation in India is from groundwater.][ Currently about 51% of the agricultural area cultivating food grains is covered by ]irrigation
Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow Crop, crops, Landscape plant, landscape plants, and Lawn, lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,00 ...
. The rest of the area is dependent on rainfall which is most of the times unreliable and unpredictable.
Indian government launched a demand side water management plan costing INR6000 crore or USD854 million across 8,350 water stressed villages of 78 districts in seven states – Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh – over five years from 2021–2022 to 2026–27, with the view to harvest rainwater, enhance water table, water recharge rate with village panchayat level water management plans.[PM Launches Rs 6,000 Crore Groundwater Management Plan]
NDTV, 25 December 2019. Most of the canal irrigation is in the canal network of Ganges
The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...
-Yamuna
The Yamuna (Hindustani language, Hindustani: ), also spelt Jumna, is the second-largest tributary river of the Ganges by discharge and the longest tributary in List of major rivers of India, India. Originating from the Yamunotri Glacier at a ...
basin mainly in the states of Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh and somewhat in Rajasthan and Bihar, while small local canal networks also exist in the south in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala.[Pooja Mondal]
Canals Irrigation in India (With Maps an Pictures)
The largest canal in India is Indira Gandhi Canal, which is about 650 km long.[Economic Times: ''How to solve the problems of India's rain-dependent on agricultural land'']
/ref> India has an ambitious river linking national project to enhance the coverage of canal-irrigated area, reduce floods and water shortage
Water scarcity (closely related to water stress or water crisis) is the lack of fresh water resources to meet the standard water demand. There are two types of water scarcity: physical or economic water scarcity. Physical water scarcity is wher ...
.[National Water Development Agency]
Ministry of Water Resources, Govt of India (2014)[Jayanta Bandyopadhyay and Shama Perveen (2003)]
The Interlinking of Indian Rivers: Some Questions on the Scientific, Economic and Environmental Dimensions of the Proposal
IIM Calcutta, IISWBM, Kolkata
Irrigation in India helps improve food security
Food security speaks to the availability of food in a country (or geography) and the ability of individuals within that country (geography) to access, afford, and source adequate foodstuffs. According to the United Nations' Committee on World F ...
, reduce dependence on monsoons, improve agricultural productivity
Agricultural productivity is measured as the ratio of agricultural outputs to inputs. While individual products are usually measured by weight, which is known as crop yield, varying products make measuring overall agricultural output difficu ...
and create rural job opportunities. Dams used for irrigation projects help produce electricity and transport facilities, as well as provide drinking water supplies to a growing population, control floods and prevent droughts.
History
Ancient India
The earliest mentions of irrigation are found in Rigveda
The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (''śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one Sh ...
chapters 1.55, 1.85, 1.105, 7.9, 8.69 and 10.101.[BN Puri]
Irrigation and Agricultural Economy in Ancient India
Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Vol. 48/49 (1968), pp. 383-390 The Veda mentions only well-style irrigation, where ''kupa'' and ''avata'' wells once dug are stated to be always full of water, from which ''varatra'' (rope strap) and ''cakra'' (wheel) pull ''kosa'' (pails) of water. This water was, state the Vedas
upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''.
The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...
, led into (broad channels) and from there into ''khanitrima'' (diverting channels) into fields.[
Later, the 4th-century BCE Indian scholar ]Pāṇini
, era = ;;6th–5th century BCE
, region = Indian philosophy
, main_interests = Grammar, linguistics
, notable_works = ' (Sanskrit#Classical Sanskrit, Classical Sanskrit)
, influenced=
, notable_ideas=Descript ...
, mentions tapping several rivers for irrigation.[ The mentioned rivers include ]Sindhu
The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...
, Suvastu, Varnu, Sarayu, Vipas and Chandrabhaga.[ Buddhist texts from the 3rd century BCE also mention irrigation of crops.][ Texts from the ]Maurya Empire
The Maurya Empire, or the Mauryan Empire, was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in the Indian subcontinent based in Magadha, having been founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, and existing in loose-knit fashion until 1 ...
era (3rd century BCE) mention that the state raised revenue from charging farmers for irrigation services from rivers.[India - History of Irrigation]
FAO - United Nations (2014)
Patanjali
Patanjali ( sa, पतञ्जलि, Patañjali), also called Gonardiya or Gonikaputra, was a Hindu author, mystic and philosopher. Very little is known about him, and while no one knows exactly when he lived; from analysis of his works it i ...
, in Yogasutra of about the 4th century CE, explains a technique of yoga by comparing it to "the way a farmer diverts a stream from an irrigation canal for irrigation". In Tamil Nadu, the Grand Anicut (canal) across the Kaveri
The Kaveri (also known as Cauvery, the anglicized name) is one of the major Indian rivers flowing through the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The Kaveri river rises at Talakaveri in the Brahmagiri range in the Western Ghats, Kodagu dis ...
river was implemented in the 3rd century CE, and the basic design is still used today.[
]
Medieval era
The most widespread irrigation system in India was undertaken in India in the medieval period by the Sultanate rulers. Firoz Shah Tughlaq
Sultan Firuz Shah Tughlaq (1309 – 20 September 1388) was a Muslim ruler from the Tughlaq dynasty, who reigned over the Sultanate of Delhi from 1351 to 1388. (1309-1388) built the most extensive canal irrigation system around the Indo-Gangetic doab and the region west of the river Yamuna in the fourteenth century. These canals provided vast resources of water to agricultural lands in northern India as well as vital supplies of water to urban and rural settlements. These irrigation projects were continued by the subsequent rulers of northern India, particularly the Mughal rulers till the early eighteenth century. The British built the colonial canal networks on these medieval canal systems.
Colonial era
In 1800, some 800,000 hectares were irrigated in India.[ The Britishers by 1940 built significant number of canals and irrigation systems in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Assam and Orissa. The Ganges Canal reached 350 miles from ]Haridwar
Haridwar (; ) is a city and municipal corporation in the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand, India. With a population of 228,832 in 2011, it is the second-largest city in the state and the largest in the district.
The city is situated on the righ ...
to Kanpur
Kanpur or Cawnpore ( /kɑːnˈpʊər/ pronunciation (help·info)) is an industrial city in the central-western part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1207, Kanpur became one of the most important commercial and military stations o ...
in Uttar Pradesh. In Assam, a jungle in 1840, by 1900 had 1.62m hectares under cultivation, especially in tea plantations. In all, the amount of irrigated land multiplied by a factor of eight. Historian David Gilmour
David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined as guitarist and co-lead vocalist in 1967, shortly before the departure of founding member Syd Barrett. P ...
states British colonial government had built irrigation network with Ganges canal and that, "by the end of the century the new network of canals in the Punjab" were in place.
Much of the increase in irrigation during British colonial era was targeted at dedicated poppy and opium farms in India, for exports to China.[T. Roy, London School of Economics, ''Globalization, Factor Prices and Poverty in Colonial India'', Australian Economic History Review, Vol. 47, No. 1, pp. 73-94 (March 2007)] Poppy cultivation by the British Raj required reliable, dedicated irrigation system. Large portions of the eastern and northern regions of India, namely United Provinces, Northwestern Provinces, Oudh, Behar, Bengal and Rewa were irrigated to ensure reliable supply of poppy and opium for China.[ By 1850, the Asian opium trade created nearly 1,000 square kilometers of poppy farms in India in its fertile Ganges plains, which increased to over 200.000 hectares by 1900.][, Hansard's, HM Government, Great Britain (14 August 1890), pp. 1054-1061] This diversion of food crop land to cash crop use, state scholars, led to massive famines over the 1850 to 1905 period.[Maddison, A. (1970), ''The historical origins of Indian poverty'', PSL Quarterly Review, 23(92), pp. 31-81][Richard Hunt (1997), To End Poverty - The Starvation of the Periphery by the Core, Oxford, UK, , pp. 145-148]
Major irrigation canals were built after millions of people died each in a series of major famines in the 19th century in British India.[ In 1900, British India (including Bangladesh and Pakistan) had about 13 million ha under irrigation. In 1901 the Viceroy, ]Lord Curzon
George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925), styled Lord Curzon of Kedleston between 1898 and 1911 and then Earl Curzon of Kedleston between 1911 and 1921, was a British Conservative statesman ...
, appointed a Commission chaired by Sir Colin Scott-Moncrieff
Colonel Sir Colin Campbell Scott-Moncrieff (3 August 1836 – 6 April 1916) was a British engineer, soldier and civil servant, best known for repairing the Nile Barrage and reorganizing the irrigation system of Egypt in the 1880s.
Early life ...
to draw up a comprehensive irrigation plan for India. In 1903 the Commission's report recommended irrigation of an additional 2.6 million hectares. By 1947, the irrigated area had increased to about 22 million ha.[ In Northwestern British India region alone, with the colonial government's effort, 2.2 million hectares of previously barren land was irrigated by the 1940s, most of which is now part of Pakistan. ]Arthur Cotton
General Sir Arthur Thomas Cotton (15 May 1803 – 24 July 1899) was a British general and irrigation engineer.
Cotton devoted his life to the construction of irrigation and navigation canals throughout British India. He helped many people by b ...
led some irrigation canal projects in the Deccan peninsula, and landmarks are named after him in Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
and Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...
. However, much of the added irrigation capacity during the colonial era was provided by groundwater wells and tanks, operated manually.
Irrigation trends since 1947
India's irrigation covered crop area was about 22.6 million hectares in 1951, and it increased to a potential of 90 mha at the end of 1995, inclusive of canals and groundwater wells.[ However, the potential irrigation relies on reliable supply of electricity for water pumps and maintenance, and the net irrigated land has been considerably short. According to 2001/2002 Agriculture census, only 58.13 million hectares of land was actually irrigated in India. The total arable land in India is 160 million hectares (395 million acres). According to the World Bank, only about 35% of total agricultural land in India was reliably irrigated in 2010.][Agricultural irrigated land (% of total agricultural land)]
The World Bank (2013)
The ultimate sustainable irrigation potential of India has been estimated in 1991 United Nations' FAO report to be 139.5 million hectares, comprising 58.5 mha from major and medium river-fed irrigation canal schemes, 15 mha from minor irrigation canal schemes, and 66 mha from groundwater well fed irrigation.
FAO, United Nations
India's irrigation is mostly groundwater well based. At 39 million hectares (67% of its total irrigation), India has the world's largest groundwater well equipped irrigation system (China with 19 mha is second, USA with 17 mha is third).[S. Siebert et al (2010)]
Groundwater use for irrigation – a global inventory
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 14, pp. 1863–1880
India has spent 16,590 crore on irrigation development between 1950 and 1985. Between 2000-2005 and 2005-2010, India proposed to invest a sum of 1,03,315 crore ( INR) and ₹ 2,10,326 crore ( INR) on irrigation and flood control in India.
State-wise irrigation data
Tables below provide the fraction of agricultural area irrigated by state, the agricultural yield per hectare, and the proportion of different irrigation technologies employed.
Statewise Irrigation Coverage and Productivity
State-wise irrigation types, capacity and actual
Note: The All India total includes land area for Union Territories of India that is not shown in the above table.
Project classification
Irrigation Projects in India are classified as follows:
# Major Irrigation Projects
# Medium Irrigation Projects
# Minor Irrigation Projects
# Micro-irrigation Projects
Since 1950, irrigation works were classified on the basis of cost incurred for the projects' implementation, governing and dissemination. However, the Planning Commission of India adopted the classification of projects on the basis of culturable command area (CCA).
Minor Irrigation Projects
Minor irrigation project is a classification of irrigation projects used in India. A project with a designed to irrigate an area of 2000 hectares or less is classified as a minor irrigation Before the Fifth Five-Year Plan, irrigation schemes were classified on the basis of investments needed to implement the scheme. Since the Fifth Five-Year Plan, India has adopted the command area-based system of classification.
Micro Irrigation Projects
Micro Irrigation Fund (MIF) of INR 5,000 crore was established "to bring more land area under micro-irrigation as part of its objective to boost agriculture production and farmers income", NABARD
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is an apex regulatory body for overall regulation of regional rural banks and apex cooperative banks in India. It is under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Finance, Government of India ...
offers low interest rate to state govts "to promote micro-irrigation, which currently has a coverage of only 10 million hectares as against the potential of 70 million hectares." Drip irrigation
Drip irrigation or trickle irrigation is a type of micro-irrigation system that has the potential to save water and nutrients by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, either from above the soil surface or buried below the surface. ...
is promoted.[10 important government schemes for agriculture sector]
India today, 2019-08-30.
See also
* Agriculture in India
The history of agriculture in India dates back to the South Asian Stone Age, neolothic. India List of countries by GDP sector composition, ranks second worldwide in farm outputs. As per 2018, agriculture employed more than 50% of the Indian wo ...
* Animal husbandry in India
Many farmers in India depend on animal husbandry for their livelihood. In addition to supplying milk, meat, eggs, wool, their castings (dung) and hides, animals, mainly bullocks, are the major source of power for both farmers and dairies. Thus, ...
* Electricity sector in India
India is the third largest producer of electricity in the world.
During the fiscal year (FY) 2019–20, the total electricity generation in the country was 1,598 TWh, of which 1,383.5 TWh generated by utilities.
The gross electricity consum ...
* Farmers' suicides in India
Farmer suicides in India refers to the national catastrophe of farmers committing suicide since the 1970s, due to their inability to repay loans mostly taken from private landlords and banks.
NCRB data shows that the incidence of farmer suicide ...
* Forestry in India
Forestry in India is a significant rural industry and a major environmental resource. India is one of the ten most forest-rich countries of the world. Together, India and 9 other countries account for 67 percent of total forest area of the w ...
* Indian rivers interlinking project
* Roads in India
Roads are an important mode of transport in India. India has a network of over of roads This is the second-largest road network in the world, after the United States with .Annual Report 2021-22 (23.70 Mb ) At () of roads per square kilomet ...
References
External links
Global Map of Irrigation Areas INDIA
Irrigated land data by state and districts of India, FAO-United Nations and University of Bonn, Germany (2013)
Ministry of Water Resources
Government of India
International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID)
{{Use dmy dates, date=March 2017
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...