Irrigation Service Delivery in Canal Systems

Abstract

Irrigation has always been a priority for India, for which bulk of expenditure has been spent on creation of major and medium irrigation projects. To provide superior irrigation service to the farmers, it becomes important to know at the outset how the farmers perceive the current irrigation service delivery system. For this, we did a study. Our results show that only 69 per cent reported canal irrigation as the dominant source of irrigation. Only 56 per cent of the total irrigation needs of an individual farmer come from the canals. Accountability of the service providers towards the farmers is currently lacking and needs major attention in the future. Quality of the service delivery varied across different sections of the command of a system, with the tail reaches receiving the worst service, effectively shrinking the actual command.