IRRIGATION IN INDIA

A NOVEL PROPOSAL

E V Vasudevan
KEY ISSUES IN INDIAN IRRIGATION
SYSTEM
Statistics
 Cultivable Area in India
~184 Mha
 Ultimate irrigation Potential
~139.9 Mha
 Utilisable Water Potential:
1122 BCM
 Surface water – 690 BCM
 Ground water – 432 BCM
Technological Issues
 total area under drip
irrigation is not more than
500,000 to 600,000 ha.
Issues
 Water resources developed at
present 644 bcm
 Only 57% of potential
 Demand is likely to increase
to 810 BCM by 2015
 Dominant share of
groundwater in irrigation
~60%
 Replenishment issues
 Average water use efficiency
is rather low in irrigation
 40 % in the canal regions to
about 60 % in the
groundwater regions
 OPPORTUNITY IDENTIFICATION –
LOCALIZED IRRIGATION SYSTEMS
 Government’s Approach towards solving irrigation issues has been
supply oriented
 That is by means of large water management projects
 Normally small water bodies like tanks, natural springs and other such
systems tend to be widely scattered and their management by the
government becomes cost ineffective
 These water bodies if efficiently managed for irrigation can reduce the
demand up to 20% in local areas
 Efficiently managing these resources can be done only at the localized
level
 Individual Farmer Level
 Water User Association (WUA*) Level
 Government rulings in the southern states (AP & TN) for allowing
registered WUA’s to develop localized irrigation units and manage
localized demand

Opportunity: Provide financial help to local user groups (WUA’s) in construction

of localized irrigation sources
* WUA’s are association of small and medium farmers having adjacent land so that they can reap the benefit
of common irrigation system
OPPORTUNITY IDENTIFICATION –
TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY
 Main reason for the low coverage of irrigation is poor water use
efficiency
 Conventional means of irrigation (Only 35-40% efficient)
 Two Main Technologies
 Drip Irrigation System and Sprinkler Irrigation System
 save 48 to 67 % of water, 44 to 67 % of energy costs, and 29 to 60
% of labor costs
 Currently on 0.5 Mha of land irrigated use these technologies
 Drip Irrigation System reduced water consumption by 70% and has
efficiency of 90%
 Sprinkler Irrigation system has efficiency of around 60%
 Investment Rs. 25,000/ha
 Difficult for small farmers to invest
 Can be done at WUA level (Economies of Scale)

Opportunity: Provide financial and technology advisory at WUA level for

adoption of drip or sprinkler irrigation systems
SERVICES PROPOSED
Based on the above opportunities, following services can
be provided profitably

Providing Financial Services for development of localized

irrigation units to the WUA’s

Providing Technological/Financial advisory to the WUA’s

for implementation of new irrigation systems

Market maker for water trading between WUA’s

FINANCIAL SERVICES
 This service will be provided to
the WUA’s to help them construct
localized irrigation units
 Irrigation from water spings,
tanks etc
 Currently there are around 15000
WUA’s in India covering 2 Mha of
land
 This is on a rise after the
government rulings of allowing
WUA nearly full control
distribution and management of
locally developed irrigation
solutions ( AP, Gujarat,
Maharashtra, TN)
 Typical cost of projects could vary
from 10 Lakhs to 15 Crores
 Funding becomes essential in
these cases
Key Services Proposed
 Financing Solutions to the WUA’s
including loans
 Structure could be similar to micro-
financing organizations
 Operations advisory
 On construction technology
 Maintenance measures
 Distribution mechanism
Major Challenges
→ Establishing Distribution network
in different regions of the country
→ Skill acquisition for operational
advisory
→ Educating the Farmers of the need
for developing localized irrigation
sources
TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY SERVICES
 This service will be offered to
the existing clientele of WUA’s
 Could have strategic alliances
with state government
irrigation agencies and private
players
 For marketing of Drip and
Sprinkler technology
 Education of the Influencers, in
adopting the technology
 Can be modeled as lease
finance for providing
technology
Key Services Offered
 Technological Advisory
 In alliance with existing players
 Financial consultancy
 Lease finance for investment in
technology
 Loans for investment in
technology
 Modeled in same way as micro-
finance organizations
Major Challenges
→ Educating the Farmers of the need
for irrigation technology
→ Establishing network / Marketing
SCALING UP – WATER TRADING
 WATER TRADING is the
process of buying and selling of
water access entitlements
or water rights
 Benefits:
 Better allocation of water
 Efficiency of water
utilization
 In India, it has been
traditionally followed
informally by WUA’s in
geographically close regions
 Scope for Demand Management
through Market Creation
 Once the model has provided
for development of localized
irrigation system
 WUA’s can become self
sustained
 Possibility of trading with
nearby WUA’s in case of
demand –supply mismatch
 Hence, there is an opportunity of
being the market maker for
local trading of water

Key Services Proposed

 Intermediary between two WUA’s for trading water / water rights
 Provision of robust delivery system - Logistics
INITIAL PLAN
 Financing Services for Initial target locations
development of localized  AP, TN and Kerala
irrigation sources to be  Legal recognition of
offered before other WUA’s as control
services authorities
 Technology advisory  Lower groundwater

services to be offered to utilization efficiency

existing clientele  Larger number of WUA’s

 Water trading to be Development of Network

offered when formidable  Local Panchayats
 Neerugantis in AP
number of clients in local
areas established