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The enormous drain of water into the seas, the paradoxical and perennial shortage of water for irrigation and drinking, and the floods in many parts of India must have often prompted the idea of networking the rivers. Now that the President Dr.Abdul kalam has said the plan must be accorded top priority, it is hoped it will kick start the economy and mitigate the problem of unemployment. This paper mostly emphasizes on the overall economic progress in the agricultural scenario through the river. The river networking plan is perhaps the best to kick start the ailing economy and over the next 15-20 years that it would take to implement, the project would generate so much of employment that the problems of an entire generation would be solved. The project is also certain to integrate the rural and urban economies and bridge the gap in the great rural-urban divide. Of course, before embarking on such a grandiose plan, the Government would have to look at various socio- political and constitutional issues so that the plan is successfully implemented without getting bogged in narrow sectoral and social issues. The benefits of this network would be phenomenal. Industry and Irrigation sectors will grow exponentially during the construction phase, the unemployment problem of the educated and the rural youth will be resolved. There would be an overall growth of all sectors of the economy.

The river networking project should have. in its agenda the action plan for increasing the forest area by a certain percentage in the regions of the proposed new canals and storage basins. At every stage of the case on the networking of rivers, the court had two options before it. At each stage the court took the option that appeared less convincing. The seeds of the case in the court were sown by some words that President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam included in his speech on the eve of Independence Day. In words that were more a comment on the technical capacity of the nation to execute the project rather than its feasibility, or indeed desirability, the president observed that "Technological and project management capabilities of our country can rise to the occasion of making this river networking a reality with long term planning and proper investment". The Supreme Court of India, in response to a public interest writ petition, has urged that the project for the linking of the rivers of India be accelerated and implemented by 2016. The Prime Minister subsequently announced the setting up of a Task Force to consider the modalities of implementing the project. This Task Force has been set up and has started working under the chairmanship of Shri Suresh Prabhu. "The interlinking of rivers will change the shape of India. It should be seen as an opportunity to integrate and synergise the country," says Suresh Prabhu, Chairman of the Task Force on Rivers Interlinking. The idea of linking rivers has been dormant for a long time.

1. Develop and apply new research methodologies for assessing and improving irrigation water management performance in an integrated water resource management framework; and 2. Identify key methodologies, processes, and actions that will contribute to poverty reduction and food and environmental security too. 3. Impacts/Targets 4. Better investments in water resources schemes and better management of water resources will lead to sustainable increases in the productivity of water - and better livelihoods for poor people in rural areas. As a result of these smarter investments, over a 20-year time horizon, we expect less environmental degradation and less poverty. 5. IWMI will achieve impacts using a three-pronged approach: 6. Significantly influence how investments in irrigation 7. Development, improvement and management are made, by feeding results of relevant research into the global debate on water for food and environmental security. 8. Develop and disseminate research tools to enhance the 9. Understanding of the most critical issues in the management of irrigation water. 10. Provide tools, processes, and knowledge that allow water resources managers to adapt and respond to new and changing needs and expectations. Research Activities 1. Generate new knowledge on irrigation and water resources: This research will generate knowledge on the actions and processes needed to achieve sustainable improvements in water productivity in agriculture. We will explore a range of research questions, including: 1. How can the productivity of water be enhanced through water management interventions? What interventions contribute to improved livelihoods for the poor? 2. What are appropriate designs, operational procedures, and performance assessment procedures-both in large and small-scale irrigation systems? What irrigation practices lead to real water savings 3. in a river basin? How do interventions in irrigation influence other important uses of basin-wide resources such as fisheries, or domestic uses? 2) Create tools and methods for Integrated Water Resources Management. This topic will develop conceptual, research and assessment tools for managing water in irrigated agriculture, using an Integrated Water Resources Management approach. This work will combine and refine information and modeling tools to help address these complex issues. 3) Comprehensive assessment of the benefits, costs and future directions of water management in agriculture. This activity will conduct a comprehensive analysis of the benefits and costs of irrigation development over the past 50 years. The results of this work will generate new knowledge about the best options and future directions for irrigated agriculture. The analysis will examine impacts on food production, prices, poverty and the environment-at the global, local and community levels-in a number of developing countries

Indian Agricultural Scenario

India is an agricultural country; agriculture has an important role to play in the economic development of an agrarian economy. Two-thirds population depends on agriculture sector directly or indirectly. Agriculture continues to be the main stay of the Indian economy. Indian agriculture contributes about 22 per cent to the national Gross Domestic Product. With food being the crowning need of the mankind, much emphasis has been placed on commercialising agricultural production. Hence, adequate production and even distribution of food has lately become a high priority global concern. With the changing agricultural scenario and global competition, there is a need of exploiting the available resources at maximum level.

The rural economy of India is based primarily on agriculture, with the work force employed in the agricultural sector making up 64 percent of the total population contributing 22.4 percent of GDP The per capita food production is marginally enhanced from 395gms in 1946 to 529gms in 1996-97. The result is self-sufficiency in terms of national food grain requirements. Attaining food self-sufficiency is based on factors such as expansion of agricultural land, commercialization of agricultural practices, proper inter linking of river flows & use of inputs such as improved seeds, fertilizers, pesticides etc. In Indian agriculture the factors like high soil productivity, supply of balanced crop nutrients, efficient water management, improved crops, better plant protection, post-production management for value addition and marketing, are responsible for higher yield as compared to most of the other countries. The river linking project was first conceived by India in 1980 and has been under discussion ever since. But India's current ruling party has reportedly launched a campaign to gather public support for this ambitious project of linking the rivers across the country. India's Bharatiya Janata Party-led government sees the inter-linking of rivers as a long-term solution to many of the country's problems. The BJP says the river-linking project would boost the annual average income of farmers from the present $40 per acre of land to over $500. A recent estimate is that once the rivers are linked, India's food production will increase from about 200 m tonnes a year to 500 m.

In the new millennium, the challenges in Indian agricultural sector are quite different from those met in the previous decades. The enormous pressure to produce more food from less land with shrinking natural resources is a tough task for the farmers. To keep up the momentum of growth, a careful economic evaluation of inputs like seeds, fertilizers, irrigation sources etc are of considerable importance.

To change the agricultural scenario of our nation and divert huge flows of water from rivers, irrigation system of our country should be extra built. It should stand as a backbone & to make the dreams of millions of people especially farmers to see our agriculture sector making a remarkable progress.

To rebuild agriculture sector our irrigation system & facilities plays an important role without which nothing is possible to achieve.

The Supreme Court has not directed the center and states to respond to public interest litigation urging countrywide networking of rivers to solve problems of drought and flood. Inter basin water transfer is not a new idea. The west flowing periyar was diverted through kerala's high ranges inthe 1880s into the Vaigai River to augment water supply to the drought-affected Ramnad & Tinniveli districts of yore.

The Telugu Ganga canal carries Krishna waters to Chennai. The waters of the Ravi and Beas via the Bhakra system feed the Rajasthan canal, which has now reached Barmen The Sardar Sarovar project will carry waters originating in Chattisgarh across several basins-the Mahi, Sabarmati and Kadana among them to Saurashtra and Kutch.

Dr. K.L. Rao had proposed a Ganga Cauvery link in the 1970s. The concept was sound; the alignment infeasible. An aviator, captain Dastur, then proposed two Gigantic Himalayan and peninsular garland canal. This was unsound from the engineering and environmental point of view.

The government set up a national water development agency two decades ago to work on a national water perspective or national water grid. The agency commenced careful water balance studies from micro —basins upwards, including ground water, taking into account population growth and related demand projections for agriculture, industry urban and ecological needs up to 2025. The next step was to see how the deficits could be met and where surplus waters needed to be moved after an appraisal of techno-economic, environmental, financial; and other considerations.

Irrigation Sector

Irrigation planning either in an individual project or in a basin, as a whole should take into accounts the irritability of land cost-
effective irrigation options possible from all available sources of water and appropriate irrigation techniques. The irrigation intensity should be such as to extend the benefits of irrigation to as large a number of farm families as possible, keeping in view the need to maximize production.This research theme brings together much of the core of the Institute's expertise, knowledge base and research outputs that have been produced over the past five years. Over the coming five years,  this  will be deepened - concentrating on the areas of irrigation management, river basin analysis and global-scale strategic analysis  resources.

 

1.     We are looking at irrigation management from the perspective of the competing uses of water in river basins, including agriculture, nature, local communities, cities, industry, etc.

2.     We are adapting and applying modern information technology and research tools for gaining new insights into irrigation performance at multiple scales (farm, irrigation system, basin).

3.    We are working to uncover key insights into the determinants irrigation on performance and to provide tools and processes for improved water and irrigation management

4.     We are joining with others to "rethink" the role of irrigation in food production, poverty reduction, and environmental
security. This assessment will be a critical input to the global debate on water-food security issues that is at present
severely  constrained by lack of science-based knowledge

Background

Irrigated agriculture has many shapes, sizes and faces. These from large storage canal-fed surface systems to garden-level ' irrigation; from farmer-managed to government-managed; from

Suply-based water deliveries to those that respond to farmer demand. We know that irrigation can have a profound impact on nature, communities and other users of water in river basins, and that consequences have often been neglected when irrigation is being developed and managed.

There is a need to better understand these linkages and influences, and to evaluate options for developing and managing water productively, for the benefit of all users in a river basin. The

Back drop for this research is the increasing water scarcity that most developing countries are experiencing.

Criticisms & Suggestions on Interlinking of Rivers

 he project for linking of rivers, presented by the government as a major initiative and the definitive answer to the future water problems of the country, needs careful re-consideration says few scholars. Following are the points of criticism.

A project that was not on the anvil has suddenly become the most important undertaking of some observations of the Supreme Court in a writ petition. This seems to us to be a by passing of the planning process.

     There is a considerable doubt regarding the efficacy of large projects as a means of achieving the objective of flood control. Even if all the river linking proposals are implemented, the contribution that this will make to the mitigation of the flood problem may not be substantial. In irrigated areas, the provision of additional water from outside based on questionable calculations of water deficits, may weaken the efficiency of water conveyance and water-use, further encourage the recourse to water intensive crops and induce the repetition of some of the ills associated with green revolution approaches. In arid or drought prone areas, it may lead to the introduction of irrigated agriculture of a kind more appropriate to wet areas.

Apart from its inevitable social and human impacts, the project is potentially fraught with serious environmental and ecological consequences. These need to be evaluated carefully. For example such as the death of Aral sea because of diversion of rivers will need to be kept in mind It has been stated that the flows will be largely by gravity with lift (not exceeding120 meters) at a few selected points and that the need for a transfer of water through natural barriers will be possible in some cases, but the feasibility of such an approach in all the cases seems prima facie doubtful. This needs to be looked at very carefully, case by case. 

In the conclusion on interlinking of rivers one has to say "When the government prepares the water policy, it must ensure that distribution of water between urban and rural is well balanced." As the interlinking of rivers is a huge project, it also involves huge costs Government of India has to keep in the mind its usefulness though of its don'ts, by investing in the right project & by constructing proper dams and diverting the right flow of water to agriculture lands, pastures, and developing the lands which are losing its sanity and making the best use of them by growing the appropriate crops with water available, thereby increasing the food production giving a boost to agriculture sector. Any project done in a right manner & with good purpose is sure to reach its destination; so is the inter linking of rivers.

1. D.P. Chaudhri: Agrarian reform and agrarian reformism. 2. B.D. Dhawan: Irrigation in India's agricultural development. 3. Chattopadhyay M and Sengupta A,: Farm size and productivity — A new look at the old debate, Economic and political weekly, December 27,1997, a. A-174. 4. Ministry of agriculture, GOI, Department of agriculture and co-operation, Annual report, 1997-98. 5. Ghatak, Subrata and Ingersent, Ken,: Agriculture and Economic Development (New Delhi: Select book service syndicate, 1984). 6. Dutt and Sundaram,: Indian economy.