Technical Report on Current Irrigation Practices in Andhra Pradesh

Transcription

1 Technical Report on Current Irrigation Practices in Andhra Pradesh Prepared by Poulomi Banerjee(PhD) Bharti Integrated Rural Development Society 1 P age

2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Irrigation has been a major player in the story of agricultural performance of Andhra Pradesh. It constitutes about 43 percent of the crop land, contributing to more than 66percent of the agricultural output of the state. Statistics shows that even though Net sown area remained more or less stagnant at 11 million hectares (ha) from onwards the area under irrigation and cropping intensity continued to increase during the 1980s and 1990s. Cropping intensity increased from 110 per cent in to 123 per cent in This is mainly due to the increase in area under irrigation, which has grown from 2.90 million hectares in to 4.29 million hectares in Primarily dependent on rainfall irrigational growth of the state exhibited spatial and temporal variations over the years. Traditionally, the state is being irrigated through canal, tank, well and other sources. Till mid 19980s surface irrigation in form of major and medium canal remained the principal irrigational sources of the state. During , the net irrigate area by canals was 16.70m lakh hectares as against lakh hectares in recording, an increase of 3.7 percent. The highest area irrigated is in Guntur district. While huge expenditures on the major and medium projects were incurred, there was no proportionate allocation for maintenance and infrastructure, which, inter alia resulted in poor utilisation. Thus, after 50 years and an investment of over Rs 7,000 crore, additional area irrigated under major and medium irrigation in Andhra Pradesh was lakh ha at a cost of Rs 42,000 per ha. Interestingly, despite huge investments, the area under canal irrigation, after recording positive growth till 1990, started declining during the 1990s. The evolution of novel institutional arrangements like WUAs during the late 1990s does not seem to have helped in altering the trend. Besides, there are gaps in potential contemplated, created and utilized for the major and medoium canal irrigation projects. More importantly, there is a wide gap between capacity contemplated and that actually created. Actually created irrigation is as low as 26 per cent of capacity contemplated in the case of medium projects and 66 per cent in the case of major projects. Tanks formed one of the significant storage structures in the peninsular tract of Andhra Pradesh. At present, there are about 70,000 tanks in the state, of which Telangana has 44 per cent followed by coastal Andhra (38 per cent) and Rayalaseema (18 per cent). Although they form one of the oldest irrigational sources, there seems to be a consistent declining trend in the recorded net irrigated area under tanks during the last few decades. This is especially true in Telengana and Rayelseema regions, where net tank irrigated area has decreased by 103,000 and 242,000 ha, respectively. One of the prime factor responsible for any decline in either tank or canal irrigation is fast growth of ground water irrigation. It has been observed that, towards the end of 1990s the irrigation sector of the state experienced rapid transformation from surface to groundwater. In other words, the colonial irrigation strategy, created pockets of agrarian prosperity in canal commands (i.e. the area below the reservoir/weir irrigated by gravity canals). The need was felt by peasants in the state to secure the means of irrigation which could permit intensification and diversification of land use. The availability of small mechanical pumps and boring rigs provided a technological breakthrough. Beginning in 1970, this combination of circumstances catalyzed a groundwater revolution in the state resulted into steady rise of net irrigated area. With the 2 P age

3 fact that tanks and canal systems are unable to meet the growing demand of irrigation; 1990, saw a transformation from a centrally managed surface irrigation regime to atomistically managed water scavenging irrigation regime particularly in the hard rock regions of Telangana and Rayalseema. This was a wholly new phenomenon for the state and lack of understanding of the groundwater aquifer on one hand and effective policy formulation on the other resulted in rampant, unmanageable exploitation of groundwater. This became all the more critical with increase climatic uncertainties, particularly rainfall variability. Several studies pointed out that in the recent years (since 2002), irrigation growth of the state has become very sensitive to rainfall. This is evident from decline in the ground water irrigation in the shallow hard rock regions of Telengana and Rayelseema occasionally suffering from droughts. Evidence suggests that climate change has transformed groundwater into a more critical and yet threatened resource, and requires a reorientation of the state s water management strategy for its further growth. Given the fact that marginal and small farmers are most vulnerable to any climatic extremities developing efficient management strategies for effective irrigational development is crucial. In fact, managing shortages and understanding the relationships between shocks in water supplies and agricultural systems have thus become critical in irrigation policy. Literature on climate change has extensively advocated several supply augmentation (increased storage capacity, improved conveyance and distribution system, better operation and maintenance, and development of new sources of water ) and demand management options (users participation, crop diversification toward high input crops, better land preparation and cropping practices, better irrigation scheduling and modern methods, etc). Based on extensive literature review, region specific recommendation on adaptation strategies being made for the SPACC project. Managed aquifer recharge and conjunctive use of surface and groundwater emerged as an important supply driven measures to combat climate change. While Watershed Management, judicious use of drip and sprinklers irrigation, contingency crop planning and effective community mobilization and institution building identified as effective demand driven adaptation strategies effective for project areas. 3 P age

4 CHAPTER ONE Introduction 1.1 Background: Irrigation serves as a cultural and social tool that can help a society develop along a desired trajectory (Groenfeldt 2005). It is an age old practice and in fact as old man s first attempt at crop growing. Thus hydrological installations were among the earliest technological achievements of the human kind. In the era of the Green Revolution, irrigation served as the keystone of agricultural growth and investments. The impacts of irrigation development were generally viewed as desirable for creating a modern society as subsistence farmers shifted to higher value crops and were drawn more firmly into the market economy. Irrigation has dictated and decided largely the pace and the process of agricultural development (Agarwal & Narain 1999). Needless to say that, irrigation is not a modern day concept. Human civilization grew up near natural water resources and there are many records of the practice of irrigation from rivers and from man-made canals, wells and tanks. Excavation of the ruins of Mohenjodaro of the Indus valley civilization that flourished and reached its peak in 3000 BC illustrates the existence of a network of well designed water supply and drainage systems. Over centuries, India has developed varied range of techniques to harvest every possible form of water- from rainwater to ground water, stream, and river to flood water. Existence of extensive tank irrigation in southern India bears the testimony of working of the ancient water harvesting structures till today. Irrigation thus played the key role in India s agrarian economy and Andhra Pradesh being no exception. Agriculture is the bed rock of the state economy with about 72.7% of the total population depending on it. Andhra Pradesh has one of the largest irrigated areas. With a gross irrigated area of 6.28 m. ha, the state accounts for nearly 7.3 per cent of the total irrigation in the country.net sown area remained more or less stagnant at 11 million hectares (ha) from onwards. However, area under irrigation and cropping intensity continued to increase during the 1980s and 1990s. The net area irrigated during , constitutes about 42.2 % of the net area sown of the state. Cropping intensity, measured in terms of ratio between gross area sown to net area sown, has increased from 110 per cent in to 127 percent in (Reddy 2003, SCR ). This is mainly due to the increase in area under irrigation, which has grown from 2.90 million hectares in to 4.21 million hectares (SCR ). Along with the gross area irrigated, there has been a change in the sources of irrigation, particularly in post 1980s. The state is principally irrigated by canals, tanks, tube wells and other sources. Godavari and Krishna are principally supplying water for irrigation purposes through canals. Apart from canal irrigation, tanks irrigation constitutes one of 4 P age

5 the oldest structures used for irrigation and ground water storage. However, during 1980s and mid 90s the area under canal and tank irrigation substantially declined with exponential growth in well irrigation, particularly deep tube wells. Today, nearly 49 per cent of the net irrigation is from shallow and tube wells (Reddy 2007; Amarasinghe et al. 2007). Such a change may be attributed to the decline in public investment in agriculture in recent years. These changes have environmental consequences. The increase in area under well irrigation coupled with the decline in tank irrigation invariably results in overexploitation of groundwater resulting in environmental problems such as desertification in the fragile resource regions (Reddy 2003). The problem has become more severe with the fact that state is mostly underlain by hard rock aquifers, with very poor storage and yield potential. Most parts of the state do not provide a favorable environment for intensive use of groundwater resources (Kumar et al. 2011). Yet, limited access to water from surface irrigation systems such as reservoir and canal-based systems and tanks, makes farmers resort to well irrigation through open wells. Energisation of wells through rural electrification and subsidized power further added impetus for the farmers to go for tube well irrigation. Though canal irrigation still dominates in the coastal Andhra region, well irrigation replaced tank irrigation largely in Telangana and Rayalaseema (Reddy 2003). Such exponential growth of tube-wells particularly in the rainfed zones of Telengana and Rayalalseema has raised alarms across development activists, academia and policy makers. Number of suggestions made over the past years to tackle alarming growth of tube wells coupled with groundwater depletion problems and to sustain groundwater irrigation for socio-economic development. The policy imperatives largely focused on community regulation of groundwater use at the village level; electricity metering and energy pricing; shift in cropping pattern, with replacement of irrigated paddy by dry land crops; watershed management and artificial groundwater recharge; and large-scale adoption of micro irrigation systems, and increased utilization of groundwater in canal command areas. But, a close look at the growing literature on effective irrigation management or to say efficient water management in irrigation shows that these management solutions are not based on scientific consideration of the true factors that determine the technical feasibility and socio-economic viability of these solution, but instead are run-of the mill ideas based on popular perceptions. It has been largely realized that neither the technical solutions nor a socio-economic approach independently can provide a sustainable solutions. This became all the more critical with current consciousness of climate change variability. Against this apprehension, the following report attempts to assess the irrigation status of the state from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Considerable attention has been given in bringing out the hydrology, hydrodynamics, geological, economic, social and ethical intricacies in irrigation practices (Custodio, 2000; Kumar et al., 2001, Kumar et al., 2011). Emphasis been laid to understand the relation between climate change and water use within different irrigation practices so as to come up with appropriate adoptive strategies to cope up climate change variability. 5 P age

6 1.2 Methodology and Data Sources: The report is essentially based on extensive literature review on current irrigational status of the state of Andhra Pradesh. Secondary level information on sources of irrigation, ground water, rainfall, cropping pattern etc has been obtained from the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Department of Agriculture, Groundwater, Irrigation and Horticulture. Annexure 1 provides the list of indicators and formats used to collect secondary data. 1.3 Chapterisation: The following technical report is divided into four chapters including the introductory one. This is followed by a detail account of the current irrigation practices of the state, emphasizing on trends and turning points. The main focus of the chapter is to craft out historical evolution of irrigational pattern in Andhra Pradesh and also to investigate the implication of major changes in its trends. Chapter III gives an overview of the cropping patterns across district highlighting the determinants of crop diversification. Chapter IV talks about adaptive strategies to climate change in irrigated agriculture. Based on extensive literature review on best practices the chapter attempts to recommends several resilience, adaptation and mitigation strategies as to mange climate variability and ensures sustainable agriculture management. Chapter concludes with summary and policy implications. References: Agarwal Anil and Sunita Narain(1999): Making Water Management Everybody s Business: Water Harvesting and Rural Development in India Gatekeeper Series no. 87. Amarasinghe, Upali, B.K. Anand, Madar Samad and A. Narayanamoorthy (2007) Irrigation in Andhra Pradesh: Trends and Turning Points, paper presented at the workshop on Strategic Analyses of India's River Linking Project-A Case Study of the Polavaram- Vijayawada link, C Fred Bentley Conference Center, Building # 212, ICRISAT Campus, Patancheru, Hyderabad, August 30, Custodio, E. (2000) The Complex Concept of Over-exploited Aquifer, Secunda Edicion, Uso Intensivo de Las Agua Subterráneas, Madrid. Groenfeldt, D. (2005): Building on tradition: Indigenous irrigation knowledge and sustainable development in Asia. Agric. Hum. Values 8: Kumar M. Dinesh, MVK Sivamohan, V. Niranjan, Nitin Bassi (2011) Groundwater management in Andhra Pradesh: Time to Address Real Issues Occasional Paper No P age

7 Kumar, M. Dinesh and O. P. Singh (2001) Market Instruments for Demand Management in the Face of Scarcity and Overuse of Water in Gujarat, Water Policy, 3 (5). Season and Crop Report (SCP), Andhra Pradesh ( ), Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Hyderabad. V. Ratna Reddy (2003): Irrigation: Development and Reforms Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 38, No. 12/13 (Mar Apr. 4, 2003), pp P age

8 CHAPTER TWO Irrigation in Andhra Pradesh: Development and Prospect In Comparing socio-economic indicators and Millennium Development Goals, there is almost perfect correlation between poverty and lack of access to irrigation. (Government of Andhra Pradesh) 2.1 Introduction: Irrigation can be defined as artificial watering to substitute any deficiency in natural rainfall with an objective of a steady expansion of crop output. It is a science of planning and designing an efficient, low cost, economic irrigation system tailored to fit natural conditions. It is engineering of controlling and harnessing the various natural sources of water by construction of dams and reservoirs, canals, pickups and other works and finally distributing the water to agricultural fields (MIS ). At one hand, it becomes a must for crop husbandry in the rain deficient tracts of the world. On the other end of the scale, in regions endowed with favorable rainfall for good part of the year, access to irrigation during the wet crop season can act as an insurance against failure in rainfall at the crucial stage of the plant growth (Dhawan 1988). Thus to carry out agricultural operations efficiently throughout the year, controlled, assured and continuous water supply through irrigation is very essential. Realizing the importance of irrigation system, Mahatma Gandhi observed, Nothing can be more important than the provision of agricultural growth. In the absence of irrigation facilities, agriculture is nothing more than a gamble. Similarly, Thomas Fuller observed that we never know the worth of water till the well is dry. In order to adopt intensive method of cultivation along with a cropping pattern, irrigation system is considered very imperative. Increased and assured irrigation leads to greater investments in inputs by farmers, a shift to highvalue crops, intensification of agriculture and increased employment. Irrigation, therefore, can be considered a lead input of rural development in general and agriculture in particular. 8 P age Irrigation has been a major player in the story of agricultural performance of Andhra Pradesh. It contributes to more than 66 percent of the agricultural output of the state. Traditionally, the state is being irrigated through major, medium, minor canal and tank irrigation systems. Post 1990s saw a marked change in the irrigational pattern of the state where positive growth of either canal or tank diminishes giving rise to well irrigation. Ground water irrigation thus overtook the surface irrigation resulting into over exploitation of the annual recharge particularly in the dryland areas of Telengana and Rayalseema. Such change was accompanied by change in cropping pattern towards non grain food products. All these have raised concern among researchers, policy makers and practitioners about the environmental adversities associated with increased drawndown, particularly within the realm of climatic change. Several studies on seasonality and rainfall conditions for last 20 years reveal an increase in deviation from normal particularly in the

9 districts of Nalgonda, Khammam, Warangal, Guntur, Prakasam, Karimnagar, Medak, Kaddapa, Chittor, East and West Godavari. Such deficient and uncertain rainfall coupled up with faulty agricultural practices and increase in ground water irrigation has made already strenuous dryland land areas more vulnerable to climate change vagaries. Considering the fact that increase rainfall uncertainties and preponderance of ground water irrigation, particularly in the semiarid districts, will have serious consequences on the future water demand of the state, it is therefore imperative to have an understanding of the causes and consequences of such shift. Following chapter aims to analyze the trends and turning points of irrigation development in Andhra Pradesh over last 40 years ( ). Attempts have been made to demonstrate how the struggle for water for irrigation shapes the agrarian change of the state. Based on aggregate statistics the following chapter provides a broad brush strokes about the regional irrigational transformation. 2.2 Andhra Pradesh: Geographical and Hydro-geological Characteristics Andhra Pradesh with a geographical area of million sq. km is characterized by a variety of physiographic features ranging from hills to undulating plains and a coastal deltaic environment. The state has three major river basins those of the Godavari, the Krishna and the Pennar. The State of Andhra Pradesh falls under the Semi Arid Tract (SAT) region in India and is mostly covered by compact and hard rocks, characterized by seasonal rainfall of a highly fluctuating nature, in both space and time. Geomorphologically, the state can be divided into pediplains, coastal alluvial plains and hill ranges. The average annual rainfall is 940 mm with a high of 1200 mm in Srikakulam district and a low of about 550 mm in Anantapur district. The major part of the rainfall (66%) is received from the south-west monsoon during June-September, with the northeast monsoon (October December) contributing only about 25 per cent of the annual rainfall. Based on rainfall and crops that could be grown, the state is divided into nine agroclimatic zones - High altitude and Tribal Zone, Krishna Zone, Godavari zone, North coastal zone, Northern Telangana zone, Central Telangana Zone, Scarce rainfall zone, Southern Telangana zone and Southern zone. Andhra Pradesh is underlain by rock types ranging from Archaean rocks to Recent (Holocene) alluvium with a wide range of texture and structure. Nearly 85 per cent of the state, i.e., about million sq. km, is underlain by hard rock comprising igneous, volcanic, metamorphic and hard sedimentary rocks. These rocks have negligible primary porosity (GWRA 2007).The remaining 15% of the area, i.e., million sq. km is underlain by soft rocks comprising Tertiary rocks, Gondwana sandstones, shales and alluvium of recent age. The total water resources, both surface water and groundwater in the state, are estimated to be bcm (3820 tmc), out of which about bcm (2200 tmc) are being currently utilized for drinking, agriculture, industry and power generation. The annual per capita availability of water works out to slightly more than 1400 cum, and present annual per capita utilization is about 800 cum. As per UN indicators, the state falls in the water scarce category warranting appropriate water governance techniques (Jain et al. 2009). The major problem of water control in Andhra Pradesh is to store rainfall and surface water in the monsoon and use it in the deficit 9 P age

10 months; in other words, sources of irrigation must perform a retentive function as well as a supplemental one (Rawal 2001). In hard rock region average well yields ranging from 75 to 150l/m are recorded. Present day mean well yields are around 0.50 ha.m per annum and they are skewed towards lower side. Gondwana rocks form extensive aquifers and sustain well yields quite beyond their annual replenishment. Tube well constructed in these rocks have yielded 100 to 1000l/m for drawdowns ranging from 12 to 38 m. the open wells tapping these formations yield from 10 to 20 cubic meter/day. Several other geological formations that provide potentially high ground water storage are The Kamthi sandstones, rajamundry sandstones, Krishna-godavari deltaic alluvium tract and coastal alluvium tract. Kamthi sandstones beyond the depth of 250 m bgl are intercalated with shales and clays. The aquifers are confined and the transmissivity varies between 28 AND 950M2/day. Rajamundry sandstones form another good aquifer yielding about 6 to 15 m drawdowns. The alluvial aquifers have high porosity and permeability thereby having potentially high water retentive capacity. 2.3 Irrigation Overview: Trends and Turning points Andhra Pradesh is one of the most important agrarian states in the country. Irrigated agriculture has been fundamental to state s economic development and poverty alleviation. The expansion of irrigation is widely believed to have played a major role in the region s rapid agricultural growth over the last three decades. Irrigation constitutes about 43 percent of the crop land. Some 25 percent of the gross domestic product and 70 percent of the employment is based on agriculture (Kumar et al 2011; Subrahmanyam and Sekhar 2003; Amarasinghe et al., 2007). The government of Andhra Pradesh, in its Vision 2020 document, envisaged a growth rate of 6.0 per cent per annum in the first decade of this century [Government of Andhra Pradesh 1999]. Statistic shows that even though Net sown area remained more or less stagnant at 11 million hectares (ha) from onwards the area under irrigation and cropping intensity continued to increase during the 1980s and 1990s. Cropping intensity increased from 110 per cent in to 123 per cent in This is mainly due to the increase in area under irrigation, which has grown from 2.90 million hectares in to 4.29 million hectares in Primarily dependent on rainfall for irrigation the state exhibits spatial and temporal variations in the quantity of precipitation received from south west and north east monsoons. Such variation has its impact in the growth of irrigation over time and space. The history of growth of irrigation of Andhra Pradesh can be classified into three distinct phases (i)era of adaptive irrigation (ii)era of canal construction 10 P age

11 11 P age (iii)era of atomistic irrigation (i)era of adaptive irrigation: Since time immemorial until the early 1800s, farming communities adapted their agrarian lives to the hydrology of river basins. There are records of numerous, often gigantic, irrigation systems constructed by kings and managed by specialized bureaucracies. Diverting and managing monsoon floodwaters to fill up countless small reservoirs was the popular water harvesting systems in hard-rock parts of Andhra Pradesh where seepage losses from water storages were insignificant (Shah 2009). Presence of numerous tanks in Telengana regions testify to this fact. (ii)era of canal construction: Around 1810, the British East India Company began changing this adaptive irrigation regime by undertaking gigantic projects that reconfigured river basins. Large canal projects were also undertaken in the south of India, particularly in Andhra Pradesh. In ambitious irrigation projects, the colonial rulers combined the interests of charity and the interests of commerce (Whitcombe 2005). The state and centralized irrigation bureaucracies replaced village communities and local landlords as key players in the new regime. Civil engineering began dominating water planning, construction and management, and continued to do so even after India become independent and remains predominant today. The colonial era left India with some of the world s largest gravity-flow irrigation systems, complete with a highly centralized, bureaucratic irrigation management regime. The irrigation sector was principally dominated by major, medium and minor canal irrigation till 1980s. (iii) Era of atomistic irrigation: The colonial irrigation strategy, however, created pockets of agrarian prosperity in canal commands (i.e. the area below the reservoir/weir irrigated by gravity canals). The need was felt by peasants around the country to secure the means of irrigation which could permit intensification and diversification of land use. The availability of small mechanical pumps and boring rigs provided a technological breakthrough. Beginning in 1970, this combination of circumstances catalyzed a groundwater revolution in the state resulted into steady rise of net irrigated area. With the fact that tanks and canal systems are unable to meet the growing demand of irrigation; 1990, saw a transformation from a centrally managed surface irrigation regime to atomistically managed water scavenging irrigation regime particularly in the hard rock regions of Telangana and Rayalseema which are largely bypassed by the canal irrigation systems. This was a wholly new phenomenon for the state and due to lack of understanding of the groundwater aquifer on one hand and effective policy formulation on the other resulted in rampant, unmanageable exploitation of groundwater. This became all the more critical with increase climatic uncertainties, as evident by recurring droughts in post Figure 2.1 Showing Percentage Growth in Net Irrigated Area in Andhra Pradesh Area (mha) Temporal growth - Net irrigated Area Source: GOAP 2007 Gradual significant growth before 1987 Significant abrupt shift in 1987 No significant change between Significant increasing trend after 1996 Severe drop due to drought

12 According to Season and Crop Statistics there is a consistent fluctuation in average annual rainfall since 2000 resulting into severe crop failures. Figure 2.1 shows the temporal growth of percentage net irrigated area (NIA) from 1970 till 2005 for the state as a whole. The overall trend in net irrigated area has been positive and significant also marked a significant and abrupt rise in NIA essentially due o the dominance of tube well irrigation. From 1990s onwards the trends in irrigation remained fluctuating where temporal decline can be seen between and respectively. The recurring droughts coupled up with dysfunctional wells were primarily responsible for such decline. Figure 2.2 shows net and gross area irrigated for the state from till This latest figure also depicts the fluctuating nature of the irrigation trend in the state, where major drop can be noticed in and Rainfall deficiency had been the major cause for such fall. Figure 2.2 Temporal Growth in Net and Gross Irrigated Area ( to ) Growth in Net and Gross Irrigated Area net irrigated area gross area irrigated Figure 2.3 Showing Percentage Growth in Net Irrigated Area across Agro-Climatic Zone 2.5 Spatial variation- Net Irrigated Area Area (mha) Source: GOAP 2007 Costal AP Telangana Rayalaseema 12 P age

13 Figure 2.3 shows the percentage net irrigated area across regions in Andhra Pradesh. Some of the important observations made from the figure are, In Telangana, Net Irrigated Area increased both before and after In Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Net Irrigated Area increased before 1987, but no significant change after In Rayalseema, Net Irrigated Area decreased before A slight but statistically not significant increasing trend can be seen after Following subsections explores the trends of different irrigational sources in the state Spatio-Temporal Account of Irrigational Sources in Andhra Pradesh Figure 2.4 and table 2.1 depicts source wise net irrigate area in Andhra Pradesh from 1970 to Groundwater irrigation expanded rapidly between 1971 and Canals and tanks were the main sources of irrigation in the 1970s and 1980s, contributing to about two-thirds of the total Net Irrigated Area. But, groundwater has been dominating irrigation since the mid-1990s, contributing to more than half the Net Irrigated Area in 2005 (Figure 2.4).From the figure 2.4 it is evident that since 1970 the proportion of groundwater irrigation has increased while those of canal and tanks have decreased. Such a shift necessitates clear understanding of the mode of expansion of different irrigational sources across space and time. The pattern canal and tank irrigation has shown insignificant rise during , the trend in well irrigation shows similar trend till Following section discusses about the trends and turning points of major, medium and minor irrigation with special reference to ground water irrigation. Figure 2.4 Showing the Percentage Net Irrigated Area by Different Sources in Andhra Pradesh Source wise net irrigated area in Andhra Pradesh 4% 17% 30% % % 22% 26% 49% % 30% 23% 43% 43% % 37% 15% Canals Tank Groundwater Other sources Source: GOAP 2007 Source: Directorate of Economics and Statistics, GOAP, Hyderabad 13 P age

14 Table2.1: Showing Temporal Variations in Area Irrigated Under Different Sources years Area Irrigated by different sources (000hec) Canals Tanks Wells Other sources P age (i) Major and Medium Canal Irrigation: Canals are the major sources of irrigation in the state. During , canal irrigation contributed about 34.6 percent of the net area irrigated by all sources in the state. The net irrigate area by canals during the year was 16.70m lakh hectares as against lakh hectares in recording, an increase of 3.7 percent. The highest area irrigated is in Guntur district. While huge expenditures on the major and medium projects were incurred, there was no proportionate allocation for maintenance and infrastructure, which, inter alia resulted in poor utilisation. Thus, after 50 years and an investment of over Rs 7,000 crore, additional area irrigated under major and medium irrigation in Andhra Pradesh was lakh ha at a cost of Rs 42,000 per ha. Besides, the additional area brought under well irrigation is marginal in these regions. Interestingly, despite huge investments, the area under canal irrigation, after recording positive growth till 1990, started declining during the 1990s. The evolution of novel institutional arrangements like WUAs during the late 1990s does not seem to have helped in altering the trend. The total potential created in major and medium irrigation sector is slightly more than the lakh ha potential bequeathed to the state at the beginning of the planning era (prior to ). There are gaps in potential contemplated, created and utilised. These gaps are wider in the case of medium irrigation than in major irrigation projects Capacity utilisation in medium projects is 65 per cent against 83 percent in the case of major

15 irrigation projects. More importantly, there is a wide gap between capacity contemplated and that actually created. Actually created irrigation is as low as 26 per cent of capacity contemplated in the case of medium projects and 66 per cent in the case of major projects. (ii) Tank irrigation: Tanks are small sized reservoirs formed by small earthen embankments to store runoff for irrigation. It is one of the oldest sources of irrigation in the State. For the construction of a tank, site is selected within a watershed protected by vegetation and containing minimum of cultivated land so as to ensure minimum rate of sedimentation which lowers its storage capacity. Adequate soil conservation measures are essentially adopted to ensure quantity and quality of water inflow into the tank. Tanks irrigation can be classified, according to the nature of supply of water: System tanks: The system tanks get assured supply from nearby rivers or canal system and as such they may not have their own catchment. Non-system tanks: Also called isolated tanks. The non-system tanks depend on the runoff from their own catchment. They are not connected to any other tank. Grouped tank: The grouped tanks, as the name implies, consist of a series of tanks connected together such that outflow from the upper tank is stored in the lower one for irrigation. There are about 70,000 tanks in the state, of which Telangana has 44 per cent followed by coastal Andhra (38 per cent) and Rayalaseema (18 per cent). Although low rainfall in three consecutive years explains the short-term variation, there seems to be a consistent declining trend in the recorded net irrigated area under tanks during the last few decades. However, not all of the NIA lost under tank irrigation systems, was lost from the production system. Wherever the net tank irrigated area has decreased, much of that is replaced by groundwater irrigation. Thus, interestingly, the region with the highest dependence on groundwater (Rayalaseema) has the lowest number of tanks. This is especially true in Telengana and Rayelseema regions, where net tank irrigated area has decreased by 103,000 and 242,000 ha, respectively, while the net groundwater irrigated area has increased by 194,000 and 307,000 ha, respectively. It seems that tanks in these areas are operating as a valuable recharge structures for utilizing groundwater irrigation. The situation is different in coastal Andhra due to perennial river basins like Krishna and Godawari Along with fall in the rainfall, problem also lies in the functioning of tanks. At the state level, 69 per cent of the tanks are under repair, which accounts for 82 per cent of the area irrigated by tanks. Effectively, only 18 per cent of the tank 'ayacut' (command area) is being irrigated. Given the high complementarily between well and tank irrigation, it is necessary to strengthen the tank systems in Rayalaseema and Telangana. A better option would be to convert existing tanks into percolation tanks so that groundwater potential would improve. (iii) Minor Surface Irrigation: All Irrigation schemes having a culturable command area up to 2000 hectares (4942 Acres) individually are classified as Minor Irrigation schemes. 15 P age

16 A Minor Irrigation Scheme is to be identified with reference to source of water, pattern of lift, ownership etc. Different water lifts operating on the same source such as river, tank and well will normally constitute different units. Here only surface flow and surface lift irrigation being considered, while tube well and dug wells are considered separately in the ground water section. According to Fourth Minor Irrigation Census, there are 81,010 surface flow irrigation schemes during the reference year When compared to the data collected during previous census, the number of schemes has decreased by 1.74 percent. The reasons for decrease are some of the tanks have been abandoned and ayacut of some of the Minor irrigation sources covered under major and medium irrigation schemes which have been taken up during the last five years. Further, some of tank beds wherever dried up are either encroached/assigned to the Non Agriculture usage. Generally this is observed in Mahaboobnagar, Adilabad and Srikaklam districts. The irrigation potential created by these schemes is 16,47,405 hectares where as the utilization is 6,94,396 hectares, means percent of the potential created. The percentage of utilization is decreased when compared to that of previous census. The decrease in utilization may be due to the local encroachments of the tank beds etc. The average area irrigated by a surface flow irrigation scheme is 8.57 hectares whereas it was hectares during previous census period, showing an apparent decrease. Total number of surface Flow Irrigation Schemes is recorded as 0.81 lakhs in the State. The Highest number of surface Flow Irrigation Schemes are recorded as 0.09 lakhs in Viziaagaram district where as the least are recorded as almost negligible (194) in Guntur district. The Gross Irrigational potential created by the Surface Flow Irrigation Schemes in the state is lakh Hectares. The Highest and least GIPC are recorded as 1.42 lakh Hectares and 0.09 lakh Hectares in Chittoor and Guntur districts respectively. The Actual potential utilized under the schemes is recorded as 6.94 lakhs Hectares in the state. The highest and least potential utilized are recorded as 0.98 lakhs hectares and 0.01 lakhs Hectares in Viziagaram and Guntur districts respectively. (iv) Ground water irrigation: The ground water irrigation which has contributed majorly towards increase in net irrigated area in recent years shows some notable trend patterns between and Till the early 1970s, tanks were the dominant sources of irrigation in the Telangana Net groundwater irrigated area (mha) Figure 2.5 Showing Temporal Growth in Ground Water Irrigation Temporal growth Source: GOAP P age

17 and Rayalaseema regions, while canals were the main source in the Coastal Andhra. After the 1970s, well irrigation particularly tube wells, replaced the traditional tank irrigation in parts of Telangana and Rayalaseema. Over a period of four and half decades, the proportion of area under well irrigation in the state went up - from 27% in 1963 to 40% in 2008 with significant increase in Telangana Region (from 21% to 38% between 1963 and 2008). On an average, the density of wells increased from 5 to over 100 wells per sq km. Figure 2.6 Spatio-temporal Variation of Ground Water Irrigation Net groundwater irrigated area (mha) Spatial variation Source: GOAP 2007 Costal AP Telangana Rayalaseema Among the well irrigation, recent growth patterns indicate that groundwater irrigation especially that through dug well has declined substantially. Dug wells were the main contributor to the growth of groundwater irrigation before late 1990s. However, the Net Irrigated Area through dug wells has been decreasing in recent years. Part of this decline was due to the droughts of But the declining trend seems to be continuing beyond the drought period. It is clear that reliance of tube-well irrigation is increasing. In fact, tube-well irrigation seemed to be taking the place of dug wells in most regions. Area (mha) Figure 2.7 Showing Temporal Growth of Percentage Net Irrigated Area under Tube and Dug Wells Net irrigatd area under tubewells and dugwells in Andhra Pradesh Dugwells Tubewells Tube wells: It is one of the major irrigational sources of the state. Nearly 49 per cent of the net irrigation of Andhra Pradesh is from dug wells and tube wells (Reddy 2007; Amarasinghe et al., 2007). From 1970 till 2000 the ground water irrigation through shallow and deep tube wells increased from 16 percent to 43 percent. At present there are lakhs 17 P age

18 wells in the state, of which lakhs are in Telangana, 4.71 lakhs in Rayalaseema and 4.16 lakhs in coastal Andhra. Further, lakhs wells are estimated to be feasible with a distribution of 3.89, 1.38 and 6.19 lakhs wells in the respective regions. The net irrigated area through wells shows a consistent rise since 1970s onwards. There was an accelerated growth after The growth reached its peaked in However post saw a dropped in area irrigated by nearly 1.6lac ha from the highest figure. Among all the three regions Telangana shows a fastest growth, followed by coastal Andhra and Rayalseema. But, what is interesting is that this had no correlation with the growth in number of wells, unlike what many scholars contended in the past. The average area irrigated by a well was recorded as nearly 1.07 ha in , with the growth in number of wells to tune of 8.62lac, not the growth irrigated area. There are number of factors responsible for such declining well productivity. The state is mostly underlain by hard rock aquifers, with very poor storage and yield potential. Due to low specific yield ( ), sharp rise in water levels is observed in aquifers during monsoon, leaving little space for infiltration from structures. While harnessing water for recharge is extremely important during normal and wet years, the natural recharge in hard rock formation is high during such years as it is a function of seasonal rainfall, further reducing the scope for artificial recharge. Soils pose additional challenges. Results obtained from short term infiltration test carried out in dug wells in Andhra Pradesh in two different soil conditions show that the infiltration rate becomes negligible (< 0.60 mm/hr) within 10 minutes of starting the test in the case of silty clay. If the infiltration rate approaches to zero fast, it will negative affect the recharge efficiency of percolation ponds. As thin soil cover has low infiltration, the extent of the problem would be larger in hard rock areas (ideal for percolation ponds) with thin soil cover. Dickenson (1994) based on several infiltration studies shows that rate of infiltration declines to a minimum value within 4-5 days of ponding. This also will have adverse effects on the performance of structures built in areas experiencing flash floods and high evaporation rates, solutions for which would be wetting or drying of pond beds through regulation of inflows. On the other hand, storage of water on the surface in small reservoirs would result in huge evaporation losses. With increase in number of wells, the influence area of a wells increase and the available groundwater gets distributed among larger number of wells (Kumar 2007). The average area irrigated by a well recorded a minor improvement in (1.12ha). This could be attributed to factors such as increase in recharge from rainfall, change in cropping pattern, and increase in groundwater pumping in command areas, resulting from reduced surface water release from canals for irrigation. 2.4 Emerging Concerns in Irrigated Agriculture of Andhra Pradesh The Indian subcontinent has the largest semi-arid tropical (SAT) area among developing nations. The State of Andhra Pradesh falls under the SAT region in India and is mostly covered by compact and hard rocks, characterized by seasonal rainfall of a highly 18 P age

19 fluctuating nature, in both space and time. As a consequence of the green revolution and an increase in industrial activity, there has been an increase in the utilization of groundwater resources during the last two decades in Andhra Pradesh. The development has also caused a number of problems, such as water table decline, decrease in well yields and seawater intrusion. Although major irrigation projects have contributed to improved agricultural production, the associated problems of waterlogging, salinization and loss of valuable bioresources have led to the gradual degradation of the land, affecting agricultural productivity. Surface water and groundwater have also been polluted in several parts of the State because of untreated discharge of effluents from the industries into nearby streams or open lands. Following section provides account of some of the pressing issues faced the irrigation sector of Andhra Pradesh. (i) Over Exploitation of Ground Water Resources: Rainfall within the state has remained the key determinant for both surface water and groundwater irrigation. Any change in the rainfall pattern therefore significantly influenced the overall irrigation efficiency of the state. Time and again literature on rainfall variability indicated increase in uncertainties, particularly, over the last 20 years. This in turn has resulted into drying up of tanks and emergence of rampant tube well as the most feasible and lucrative alternative. Such indiscriminate usage of ground water is more intense in drought affected districts of Telengana and Rayelseema, which are largely bypassed by the canal irrigation systems. For instance, the districts like Anatapur, Ranga Reddy, Nalgonda etc show 60 to 99 percent usage rate. Estimating groundwater was first being made by State Ground Water Board in through water table fluctuation method. The total dynamic groundwater resources of AP were thus estimated at 25.3 bcm per annum as in and the utilizable groundwater resources for irrigation were worked out to be bcm per annum The net annual groundwater draft in was 7.07 bcm. Thus, a balance of bcm was available for future development. It is to be remembered that these estimates consider only the dynamic groundwater resources of water table aquifers. Table 2.2: Estimates of Groundwater in Different Years of Assessment (in bcm) year Annual Annual Balance Availability utilization P age

20 Source: Data compiled from Groundwater Resource Estimated Reports of different years, Ground Water Department, GoAP. The net groundwater availability per annum, as per 1993 estimates, for the entire state was estimated to be about 35.3 bcm, which was 14.4% of the total quantity of water received through normal precipitation. From this, about 15%, i.e., 5.3 bcm was earmarked for drinking and other committed uses, leaving a balance of 30 bcm for irrigation. The net annual groundwater draft for irrigation was 7.09 bcm. The level of groundwater development across districts ranged between 7% and 43%, and for the state as a whole it was 25%. The state was divided into 1193 assessment units, which include basins with defined hydrological boundaries in hard rock areas with areas ranging between 50 and 450 sq km and Mandals (administrative blocks) in alluvial areas including 36 Salinev Mandals. Computations of net groundwater availability, its utilisation and availability for future use in all the assessment units for command, noncommand and poor groundwater quality areas were made separately. The estimates showed the groundwater availability at 30 bcm, usage at 13 bcm and the balance at 17 bcm per annum. The watershed boundaries were revised to 1229 during The estimates showed that groundwater availability was 32.8 bcm, usage was 14.9 bcm and the balance was 17.9 bcm per annum. These estimates included 1.3 bcm of net annual groundwater availability in poor quality and saline areas. The usage in saline areas was about 0.21 bcm. In comparison with 2002 estimates, there was a definite increase (by about 13%) in groundwater usage across sectors. This was corroborated by a steep decline in the mean water levels almost everywhere in the state. In many areas, water level stands in fractured formation, rather than in weathered formation, as shown by the network of existing Piezometers, and the drying up of traditional OB Wells. Groundwater development was at the highest level (45%) during 2004 due to the prevailing unprecedented drought conditions. In 2007, estimates were made separately for command and non-command areas using the GEC 1997 methodology, based on the data from Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Limited (APTRANSCO), Revenue Department and Irrigation Department. The state has been categorized into four zones, viz., safe (<70%), semi-critical (70% to 90%), critical (90 to 100%) and over exploited (>100%), based on the percentage of groundwater exploitation. About 5096 villages, spread over 108 Mandals and 132 watersheds, fall in the over exploited category consequent to the drying up of shallow aquifers. The assessment made by Reddy and Reddy 2001 shows that groundwater resources have reached a very critical stage in non-command areas compared to command area. The study revel that all the areas of the state that are not served by canal command, including the areas in districts like West Godavari, Anantapur, etc., are showing very high usage of the available groundwater and this is reflected increase drawdown which exceeds 70% of the safe limit of exploitation. According to Department of Ground Water, Andhra Pradesh the state can be classified into four zones of ground water usage. 20 P age