History Of Command Area Development And Water Management, Mechanics of Tillage and Traction | Mechanics of Tillage and Traction Notes- Agricultural Engg - Agricultural Engineering PDF Download

Introduction

The Centrally Sponsored Command Area Development (CAD) Programme was launched in 1974‐75 for development of adequate delivery system of irrigation water up to farmers’ field with an objective to bridge the gap between potential created and utilised and to enhance water use efficiency and production and productivity of crops per unit of land and water for improving socio‐economic condition of farmers. The programme envisages integration of all activities relating to irrigated agriculture in a coordinated manner with multi‐disciplinary team under a Command Area Development Authority.

Initially, 60 major and medium irrigation projects were taken up under the CAD Programme, covering a Culturable Command Area (CCA) of about 15.00 million hectare. From 1974‐75 till now, 314 projects with a CCA of 28.95 Million ha have been included under the programme. After inclusion of new projects, deletion of completed projects and clubbing of some projects, there are now 144 projects under implementation. The programme was restructured and renamed as Command Area Development and Water Management (CADWM) Programme w.e.f. 1‐4‐2004. Now the scheme is being implemented as a State Sector Scheme during the XIth Five Year Plan (2008‐09 to 2011‐ 12).

11.1 Programme Components

The components of the CADWM Programme are as follows:

a) Survey, planning and designing of on‐Farm Developments (OFD) works;

b) On Farm Development (OFD) works comprising construction of field channels and also land levelling and shaping and realignment of field boundaries, wherever necessary with a minimum 10% beneficiary contribution. To promote water use efficiency in irrigation, financial assistance is provided to the states for development of infrastructure to facilitate use of sprinkler/ drip irrigation system as an alternative to construction of field channels. The assistance under this item will not be admissible for sprinkler and drip irrigation systems but will be limited to construction of stilling tank, pump house and laying conveyance pipes upto farmers’ fields. The cost norms as applicable for On‐Farm Development (OFD) works will also be applicable for such works.

c) Construction of field, intermediate and link drains for letting out surplus water;

d) Correction of system deficiencies above the outlet up to distributaries of 150 cusec (4.25 cumec) capacity;

e) Reclamation of water logged area with a minimum 10% beneficiary contribution including use of location specific bio‐drainage techniques to supplement conventional techniques for reclamation of water logged area;

f) Trainings/adaptive trials/demonstrations through Water and Land Management Institutes (WALMI) and other Central/State institutions and monitoring & evaluation of the programme with 75% funding from Government of India;

g) Warabandi [with requisite funds for hardware activities under item(c) and software activities under item (f)]

h) One time functional Grants to Water Users’ Associations; and

i) Establishment cost: 20% of the expenditure on items(b),(c),(d) and (e)

The following provision for inclusion of project has been made in the programme during XI th Five Year Plan:

Any new project is included under the Programme only in lieu of completion/deletion of an on‐going project in a particular State except for the projects included in the Prime Minister’s package for agrarian distress districts, projects benefiting the drought prone areas, tribal areas, projects in the States having irrigation development below the national average and projects located in special category States/areas, namely, NE States, Uttrakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Kalahandi‐Bolangir‐Koraput (KBK) districts of Orissa.

The funding pattern for all the Programme components is on 50:50 sharing basis between the Centre and the State/farmers for all the components except for State sponsored software components such as training of farmers and field functionaries and officials, adaptive trials and demonstrations, seminars/conferences/ workshops, monitoring & evaluation of the programme etc. for which the funding pattern is 75:25 basis between the Centre and the States. The approved outlay for the Command Area Development and Water Management Programme during the XI Five Year Plan (2008‐09 to 2011‐12) is Rs.1600 crore.

11.2 Financial Achievements

An amount of Rs.3528.09 crore has been released to States as Central Assistance under the CAD Programme since its inception in 1974‐75 upto March, 2008. The continuation of CADWM scheme has been approved as State Sector scheme with effect from the year 2008‐09. During the year 2010‐11, an amount of Rs.456.40 crore was released to States against an outlay of Rs.499 crore. Total state sector (2008‐09 to 2010‐11) release is Rs.1194.39 crore. The details of central assistance released during IX, X and XI plan (2007‐ 08, 2008‐09, 2009‐10 and 2010‐11) are shown in Table 11.1 below.

Table 11.1: Central Assistance released under CADWM Programme (Rs. Crore)

11.3 Physical Achievements

The core components of physical works are construction of field channels, implementation of warabandi (rotational water supply) and field drains. The cumulative progress of works on these components is given in table 11.2 below

Table 11.2: Cumulative progress of works of field channels and drains (Million Hectare)

*Provisional

11.4 Reclamation of Water Logged Areas

Although development of irrigation has increased agriculture production, it has also caused adverse effect in the form of water logging and associated problem of soil salinity/alkalinity in many irrigation commands. The problem of water logging can be mitigated to a large extent by efficient water management and by adopting suitable preventive measures. However, in spite of best efforts, the problem of water logging has surfaced in many irrigation commands and thus it is essential to reclaim such areas so as to have optimum agricultural production from them. The Ministry of Water Resources introduced a component of Reclamation of Water logged Areas under the Centrally Sponsored Command Area Development Programme w.e.f. 1.4.1996. So far 579 schemes of 9 states, namely, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh have been approved for reclamation of 78.81 thousand ha. water logged area. Out of this, an area of 52.11 thousand ha. has been reported to be reclaimed by these States.

This component alone is not able to redress problems of water logging in the country. As such, there is a need to launch a generic scheme on reclamation of waterlogged areas to address this problem at national level.

Table 11.3  Physical Achievements of Field Channels under CAD Programme by State