Organizational Change for Participatory Irrigation Management

sector investment has not shown the same growth rate. Apart from this, the proposed
investment on major and medium irrigation during Ninth Plan is much more as compared to
minor irrigation projects. It is about 82 percent in Ninth Plan while it was only about 67
percent in Eighth Plan.
Utilization of Irrigation Facilities
Out of total irrigation potential of 89.438 million ha created up to the end of Eighth Plan,
only 80.691 million ha have been utilized so far. This indicates that there is a significant gap
of 9.7 percent between irrigation potential created and utilized.
Irrigation potential created and utilized up to Seventh Plan was 76.55 million ha and
68.588 million ha, respectively which means that about 10.37 percent of potential created was
unutilized. Up to the end of Eighth Plan potential created and utilized was 89.43 million ha and
80.69 million ha, respectively meaning thereby that about 9.77 percent of potential created was
unutilized. This shows that the gap between potential created and potential utilized has been
marginally reduced during Eighth Plan.
Sector-wise percentage utilization of potential created up to Seventh and Eight plans is
shown in Table 3. It is clear that the gap in potential created and utilized is much more in
major and medium irrigation projects than minor irrigation projects, which calls for addressing
management aspects more effectively and properly. Though another positive observation from
the above is that there is a slight improvement in potential utilization of major and medium
irrigation projects during Eighth Plan as compared to Seventh Plan while from minor irrigation
projects it almost remained same.
Table 3. Percentage Gap Between Potential Created and Utilized
(Unit: Million ha)
Major and Medium Irrigation Minor Irrigation
Potential
Created
Potential
Utilized
Percentage
Gap in
Utilization
- 194 -
Potential
Created
Potential
Utilized
Percentage
Gap in
Utilization
Up to VIIth Plan 29.912 25.467 14.86 46.524 43.042 7.48
Up to VIIIth 32.831 28.368 13.59 56.610 52.323 7.57
Major and Medium Irrigation Projects
The ultimate irrigation potential of the country from major and medium irrigation
projects has been assessed as 58.46 million ha, of which 32.83 million ha have been exploited
up to Eighth Plan. The plan-wise progress of creation of irrigation potential through major and
medium irrigation projects and expenditure incurred are shown in Table 4. One of the major
problems with the major and medium irrigation projects in India had been their non-completion
in time due to scarcity of resources, opposition from community etc. Probably, for rapid
irrigation development, ambitious plans have been prepared without assessing resource
capacity and other associated issues such as rehabilitation, environment concerns etc.
The result was that several major and medium irrigation projects could not be completed
in time. Unexpected delays in the completion of some major irrigation projects had resulted
in cost overruns and escalation of their estimated cost. During Eighth Plan Government of
India started new scheme of Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Program (AIBP) to help the States
out from this problem of financial crunch.