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Continuous contour trenching near Dhone town
Box 7a. Collection of irrigation
statistics
The basic source of primary data
as far as number of wells, land
ownership, cultivated area and
irrigated area is concerned is the
village record, or Adangal. This
is maintained for every revenue
village by the concerned Village
Administrative Officers (VAOs)
working under the Revenue
Department. Data from revenue
villages are aggregated to
provide mandal, district and
state statistics. Thus the
accuracy and reliability of
irrigation statistics depends
entirely on the standard of work
of individual VAOs not least
because data checking
mechanisms are basic and
generally just a formality. Even
conscientious VAOs tend not to
put much effort into recording
groundwater-based irrigation
statistics and the reality is that
new wells often go unrecorded
and areas irrigated per well are
rarely entered into the Adangal.
One reason being that there is
more compulsion for accuracy
regarding land use pattern, land
ownership and area under
surface irrigation sources as
they are directly used for
collection/assessment of taxes
(Janakarajan, 2000).
Irrigated floriculture in Erraguntla, Dhone
Salt-affected area near Lakshmipalli, Dhone
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