·1987 Shivajinagar Poona 5 99 55 Dear Sir You could not it is presumed purcha e a copy of the book Irrigation and Agriculture in the First Five Year Plan An Appraisal by Joshi and Dheknes owing to insufficiency of funds The Authors have therefore been pleased to send you free of cost (eren free of postage) a cops of the following Irrigation & Agriculture Full Edition in the First Five Year Plan Pages 170 An Appraisal Irrigation & Agriculture in Abridged Edition the First Five Year Plan Pages 48 An Appraisal hindly acknowledge receipt and confirm that it has been placed in the library of your institution t oors farthfully NS Joshi To Designation Principals Name of Unversity Post Office Name of Institute sawar Man singh Medical College District

·IRRIGATION AND AGRICULTURE
IN THE
FIRST FIVE YEAR PLAN
AN APPRAISAL
BY
Rao Bahadur N S JOSHI, POOVI & Prof B R DHEKNEY DHARITIR
IBRIDGED EDITIO
DECCAN BOOK STALL POONA 4
1953
Pace Rs 26

·No text on this page.

·PREFACE This Abridged critique of the First Five Year Plan is being published four years after the inauguration of the Plan The delay was unavoidable as (1) the Plan itself was not available to the public till two year after its commencement and (?) relevant information called for from Government was not ar ailabl even after ses eral reminders The full text of An Appraisal of Irrigation and Agricultural schemes In the first Five Year Plan has been published in a book of 170 pages It includes over 50 tables in support of the Appraisal the discussions and the findings Vany friends su Lested that it would be very u eful from the point of view of the lay man reader to have an abridgement of the full solume deleting the numerous tables and the more detailed discussion Hence this bridged edition in less than 30 pages The intention behind the publication of the abridged edition i to bring home to the non technical tax payer that the out turn particularly of food grain envisaged in the Five Year Plan is extremely exaggerated Had the actual returns been say even 75% of those envisaged, this book would not have been written Infz t had it been possible to so modify the irrigation schemes that by an expenditure of about "5/ more on remodelling the projects the targets would be attained before the close of the Second Five Year Plan the Appraisal or its present abridgement would not have been published Again had it been possible to verify the success or failure of the schemes by direct measurement or had instruments been provided malking an appraisal possible or easy there would have bee? some hope of the mistakes being detected in time Is it is no such cheek 1$ possible and we will therefore realize the situation only after it is too late i e when we will be swooning by sheer exhaustion \ic are at present not in a mood to learn by past experience Such 1 wise course does not fit in with the hugh ambitions aroused in us at present Our first ned is to create means of an easy but dirert measurement of the increase in (food grun and other agricultural) prodluction to allow the same to be compared with that er saged in the Plan Probably the worst feature of the I lan is that it leads the tax payer into a false sense of security and makes him believe that the Country was going to have a milleneum shortly Our ambitions have made us 50 credulous 79 to create confidence thatfool shortage was already made up by the schemes in the Five Year Pla 10 of the capital in works was spent and before water from our irrigation schemes liad actually even reached the fields It is hoped that the delerts recorded will ix s popolously as or lead in th sec ind five year plan nt least Saraswat-adın 8-1-1 befr } ·(2) to anothick and all this endal in thin sir Fven in the case of the Government of fotin we were dren from pillar to post and thus went on merrily for quite a long time to our utter discomfort and disappointment We invite the attention of our readers to tliese facts only with a view to indicating the serious Jindleaps under which we had to conduct the enquiry It is indeed difficult to explain why the Plannint Commissir and the Stale nusthorities were unable to supply the information we asked for it a veral months are worked in mcrcly awaiting information the very purpose of mtudy and scrutiny is bound to be dcfeated The inordinate delay involved in. the sublication of this critique has been fargciy duc to lack of response of Isciated and inadequnto response from the authorities concerned It would lse remily steal that for any oljective evaluation of plans one Must be sufficiently capuspred with the basic data It will also be conceded we diopr, that all furman efforts were made to secure facts 11 thcrctore in the nas we lirve mnrny occasions to dispute and to assul the calcula the Commission we cannot at Icast bc accused of hitting below the Thus dcfcatcd in our cndcivonts we decided to examine the scheynes of Irrigation and agricultural developement with the help of such matcrial as was at our disposal (2) VERIFICATION OF STATISTICAL DATA The major part of the capital outlay in the ogricultural field 1 intended to lxc dnsoted to unrious irrigation schemes The Report mentions 72 major irrigation schemes (vado page 70 of the Neport) cacha costing from Rs 10 lakhs to it. $rrur & and above With & Vick to verifying this number we counted the number of Major trrigation schenes meritroned in the DV and found to our surprise that it is 188 Pvca alter cxcluding all doubtful cases the simulier of inafar irrigation schemes according to our count stands at 1181 Ischine culale from tlic count the various Tube-wells' schemes included by the Commission in Statement V of the DSV the number sti8 exceeds 2001! We no, therefore at a loss to know how the Commission could have artssed at the figure of". Deniled information ns regards the costs of the various scluemes of desc Jopnient and the benefits expected of them has been furn shed in th supple mentry Yolumnc on Desclopment Schemes Figures at cxpenditure have * o bers) gasen in an ab tract in the same volume It is however, surprising that the two sets of femures ( those in the abstract and those in the detailed 34 ) not almays agrec. Suincumes the expenditure in the abstract table circade that in the detailed lists, sometimes it is the other WAY In the case of the Bombay Slate for instance the difference in the two acts of figures of expmuiture amounts to its est lakhs This is sought to be explained by the following statement made the preface to the Vo ume on * Nei clopinent Schemes roond!

·(3) In other fields of development for Part A and Part B States schemes opvolvin, expenditure in excess of Rs 10 lakhs b se been listed In addition there are a number of sinaller schemes in the States which are not Separately indicated here We would then like to ask would it not have been both possible and desirable to group such smaller schemes together and show them under approptiate heads? The people have a right to know about the extent of utility of such smaller schemes though it may not be convenient to make a separate mention of each But when we try to verify the figures of expenditure of some other States even the explanation proffered by the preface does not hold good The following Table reproduces the expenditure data in regard to some States - Capital provided for certain Stales under the Sub-Head Agriculture in the DSV Expenditure shown in the abstract table page 4 5 of the DSV Expenditure in the detailed lists pages 8 to 123 of the D.S V Deficient provision of capital Name of the State Lakh Rupees Lakh Rupees Lakh Rupees 3 1 Assam 2.6 312 36 2 Madhya Pradesh 1005 1996 921 3 Madras 1594 5350 356 4 Uttar Pradesh 9096 2485 899 Total 5101 It will be seen that in the case of these four States the expenditure in the detailed lists exceeds that gis en in the abstract table by no less than Rs 5101 lakhs Vw this difference of Rs 5101 lakhs cannot be explained on the ground that schemes involving an investment of less than Rs 10 lahks cach in the case of Part A and Part B States, etc have been deleted from the detailed lists! The question is which figures of expenditure are definitive--thosa bollen in the abstract table or those given in the detailed lists? In case some of the schernes from the detailed lists are omitted which are they and why are they printed in the lists in the DSV at all? The figures for are astounding! The detailed list gires Dames and costs for schemos ·Crores Rs. 6350 lakhs but the abstract table provides fest an expenditure of Rs 3594 Jakhs only the unexplained difference being 236°, of the protision' It would be hard to meet with a worse arample of careless Sheial kéounting than thus! The Central Gosernment has an unespluned difference of Rs 394 crores In other words schemes involving an expenditure lof Rs do not find any mention in the DSV The explanation provided in the preface and referred to above is not applicable to the schemes of the Central Government Why are these schemes not mentioned in the volunse at all? Unfortunately our difficulties sith regard to verification of statistical data are not confined to figures of expenditure only They extend over a wider field Let us examine figures of arcas imigalile by Major Irrigation These figures are presented at three differcnt places as under (1) Page 10 of the Report (2) Page 379 of the Beport (8) Page 123 of the D SY A reference will show that the arcas to be irrigated differ widely 18 respect of the following caght States. 7) Bihar (™) Orissa (8Punjab (4) Uttar Pradesh West Bengal (0) Jammu and kashnur, Pepsu not Rajasthan For a quite a long time one does not understand why these figures of arcas do not agree Actually we had to waste a good deal of our time and energy 22 (inding out the reasons for the divergence in the ligures We had to make our way through the abysinth of figures with considerable ůrffrculty before we could get some clues The confusion which the dispanty in the afferent sets of figures causes at least in the initial stages could have been essily avoided if adequate explanatory notes had been added to each of the three tables The Report states that a capital outlay of its 128 crores on Various agricultural schemes would provide an additional output of 60 million tons of food grains it is really a riddle as to how the Plantung Commission could have Attired at this figure of Rs 125 crores At the current market rates, the value of 6 million tons of food-prons would exceed Rs 250 crores This would mean In other words that an imestment of amas 8 only on Government schemes in the agricultural field would provide a riipee worth of additional food every year The absurdity of thus proposition will be evident by comparison with 201 cstments on existing irrigation schem s > ·(5) morhed out in consultation with State Governments which will yield 60 millon tons net of additional food grains at a cost Rs 195 crores It will be seen that the two statements do not convey the same meaning The latter may indicate inclusion of multipurpose projects undertaken by the Central Govern ment but not the former When we made an attempt to allocate ( from figures in the Report ) the costs of the aforementioned measures to additional food output it was dis covered that Rs 00 crores would be the rock bottom cost of the same even assuming the figures of capital and those of output 29 given in the Report to be correct We have shown that the capital has been underestimated and the output very seriously overestimated Since there has been no reliable information as regards the calculations of the Planning Commission which have led them to the figure of Rs 1º5 crores all that can be attempted is a guess He tried all sorts of permutations and combinations we could possibly imagine but none except the following would give the tigure of Rs 195 crores quoted in the Report As a last attempt we added up the figures of expenditure under the sub head Agriculture for all the States including that of Jammu and hashmır This process does give the figure of Rs 1'5 crores as shown below (Reproducted from Pages 5 to 9 of DSV) Part А States = Rs 9108 2 lalhs Part 3 States = Rs 2771 0 Part C States - Rs 599 7 Jammu & Kashmir = Rs 1 Total = R$ 1250U O The fiet that the above operation gives the desired figure of exactly Rs 15 crores leaves room for A sneaking suspicion that the Planning Commi ssion worhed out the figure of Rs 125 crores as above and tagged on the figure of 6 million tons of food grains to the same though actually 2 million tons out of 6 Wilions are expected from Vajor irrigation schemes ( 3 ) Verification of statistical data (contiuned) We ha e pointed out that the statistical data relating to irrigation and other schemes of agricultural deselopment are woefully deficient in important respects and also the mamer in which the aruable data are presented does not mahe for an easy and clear understanding Apart from this there are other cases of obvious anomalies and incongruities in the statistical data propose to invite attention in the following paragraphs to a few more glarios instances of these The supplementary olume an Development Schemes includes # short preface the ostensible purpose of which is to guide the reader in the understandin of the statistical material presented in that yolume Unfortun ve ·however the preface has been written so indifferently that the reader is apt to be confused and misled A few instances of this confusion may with advantage be cited The preface states All irrigation and power schemes whether Central or State are shown together in one Statement From the words irrigation and power schemes the statement referred to appears to be Statement V in the DSV Actually honever a large number of Minor) irrigation schemes are shown in Statement IV and some in Statement of the DS One begins to wonder whether according to the Planning Commission these Minor irrigation schemes shown in Stutement IV are not irrigation schemes at all One would have conna ed at this were all Vinor irrigation schemes included in Statement IV That however is not the cae In regard to some States at least some Minor rrigation schemes have been included in Statement V and the capital provision on their account has been lumped together and shown against them The remaining Minor strigation works for the same State have been included in Statement IV Vo ressons have been given for putting some Minor irrigation works in Statement IV and some in Statement V It appears that the Planning Commission did not pay adequate attention to the proper c assifruction of their schemes They scem to have merely published the lists of schemes as they were received from the State Governments All areas under minor irrigation should naturally have been included in Statement IV of the DSV As stated above however a good few Minor irrigation schemes are also included in Statement V sometimes called by the serv name Vinor Irrigation and sometimes styled as Other Schemes New GYF e. Obs jously it was improper to show f1ures like the areas to be irrigated by these minor projects under Major Irriga on It is also strange that a few obviously non irrigation schemes hase been included in the lists of State Irrigation Projects The Naviration embankment and drainage projects and Protection of Dibrugarh town in Assom and Drainage of Chaurs etc and flood protection schemes in Bihar are the important instances of the kind The importance and necessity of these schemes are not in dispute But by no stretch of imagination could these schemes bc considered os Irrigation schemes There are again certain Irrigation schemes in the State of Jammu and hashmir And which are described as land reclamation stabilization and protection from flood He would like to ask what sort of irrigation schemes are these where the additional areas are to be arrigated by such measures as Reclamation Protection against fioods and Stabilization He fail to understand how additional areas could be irrigated by measures like protection against floods and how more than one lakh acres could be prouded wth irrigation in a State like hashmir as a reult of Reclamation and Stabilization There are again a number of State intilation Schemes the benefits of which in terms of additional areas irrigated would not be available at all st the end of the period of the plan 11 1955-50 although full costs of these or ·(7) schemes will have been incurred by that time In point of absurdity however two chemnes in the Madras State and one in the Mysore State are really uniquc 1 he Cauvery Delta Drainage scheme and the New G M F Schemes in charge of Public Works Department in the Madras State, together costing no less than Rs 431 lakhs will not confer any benefits in terms of areas irrigated not only during the period of the Plan but also on their complet on! This merely confirms our suspicion that these two are not irri,ation schemes at all We were also astonished to find that Part C States it Ajmer Cutch and Himachal Pradesh do not obtain any food grains from their State Irrigation Schemes It is to be recorded further that the targets or the results of the various schemes of agricultural development have not been expressed in uniform terms We have also noticed many cases of palpable anomalies In Madhya "radesh there is one scheme of land reclamation called Reclamation of cultivable waste and from weeds by mechanical cultivation by C10 tractors The total cost of this scheme is nearly Rs 27 lakhs all to be spent before 1355 58 The area expected to be reclaimed by this scheme by 1355-56 would be 6 000 acres only This means that the cost of reclamation would be Rs 3700 per acre! In the same State there are two schemes of improved sreds which together would involve an investment of Rs 985 lakhs during the fue year period the targets of these schemes are expressed in terms of 783 259 maunds of seeds or about 51100 tons The value of seeds thus works out at about Is 1 100 per ton! The absurdity of this phenomenon is yet to be fully realised lhe production, distribution and use of these "5 000 tons of improved seeds are expected to yield an additional food output of .00 tons only This means in other words that the cost ot additional food production on account of improved seeds would amount to Rs 1 400 per ton | Compare this with the prime of food-grains per ton wluch is about Rs 430 only It is interesting to note that the additional production of sugar cane in Hyderabad State is shown to be nil But it is ditficult to reconcile this with the testimony provided by some other authorities on this issue el a technical paper on the Tungabhadra Project written by a responsible engineer of the State which records that the area under sugul-cane on the Hyderabad side of the fun abhadra Canal would be 90 000 acres Another project Rajolibunda in the same state and to be completed by 1935 58 is expected to bring under sugar-cane an area of about 8 000 acres Shese "8 OCO Acres should be able to provide an output of about 10 Qou tons of sugar and gur On the other hand in the State of Bombay the Plapners aspire to obtain an additionsl output of 87 000 tons of sugar Actually Appendıx II at pares 13-119 of the Report uses the word Sugarcane It is uafortunate that the same mistake has occurred in other places in the Report by 1955 56 It is necessary to mention in this connection that none of Bombay s ·irrigatson schemes with the exception of the Gangapur Project could be expected to provide large areas of sugar cane The Gangapur storage project was originally intended it is understood to serigate about 6 400 acres of sugar cane Eren however supposing that the contents of Gangapur mere increased somewhat the production of additional sugar or Gur would be of the order of 28 000 tons and cannot excecd 3" 000 tons There is probably one explanation that may be offered by some it that 59 000 tons of sugar and gur difference between 8" 000 tons and 28 000 tons the latter from Gangapur )may be available from Mlinor Irrigation works Such an explanation would be ridiculous In any case of that were accepted as a plausible explanation the nil figure of sugar in Hyderabad would appear to be even more absurd ( 4 ) DILEMMAS Apart from the various anomalies res caled by the cramination of the statistical material presented in the Report and the DSV there are certain dilemmatic aspects of the irrigation schemes to which we invite the attention of readers So far as we con gather the main purpose of the Plan in the agricultural and irrigation sections is large scale production (both of brain and commercial commodities ) and self sufficiency regarding food (vide Chapter XIV of the Report) It is also generally desired and expected that the irrigation facilities would be equtably distributed and that protection from famine will also be achieved It is difficult to see how the two purposes could be achieved at the sure time Though the Report itself does it clerriy state equitable distributior or protection from famine as the objectise of irrigation schemes induidual reports on schemes do indicate that to be one of the aims th rugh not always the mrin aim A mix up «f ideas is thus evinced with the result that every scheme is represented as a f mine protection scheme It appears that designers believe that a famine gis es respectability to their schemes in the eyes of the public and of the sanctioning authorities As a result it has become common practice to include protection from famine equitable d stribution of irrigation focilet ses and Inrge scale production as 3 objects achieved by acarly car I scheme of irrigation That » both mjo sible and mislerding Among the sources mentioned as contributing additional food and other produce are manures and fertilizers and imprried seeds An impression is likely to be carried tha the expenditure on these measures is of th nature as that on major and minor is gation and land reclamata Actuully expenditure on fertilizers nianures and seeds is of a recurring character If this expenditure is not ncurred annually additional annual producc w not be available the real capital expenditure on schemes of fertilizers and impro ved seede would be 0 and 13 tim-s respectively of the annual recurring expenditure sarne ·(9) that they the The agency on which the Fre I ear Plan depend for large-scale additional produce of food grains in particular is another equally difficult dilemma There can be no two opinions that the agriculturists (small owners and / or tllers ) deserve assistance but that remark most not be construed to mean that ther can be depended upon to utilise economically and to the best ndvantage of the nation amenities like ungation water manures and power We do not want to conses that the average cultirator will not after training become an efficient producer but that cannot happen overnight Training over decades till be necessarı It i true that a few from amongst the villagers and cultivators are ambitious and pushing but the form a very insignificant per entage of the total rural population Though the normal cultivators are not the most satı factor a,en for the purpose of efficient production it cannot be denied that they con titute the only genci in the field We hope it will be conceled however cannot be left along to cultivate their land in 101 manner they like Sore degree of control over their behaviour 75 producers > meritable under any planned des elopment particularly in the case of lands brou, ht under canal Laving down of output target and bolpless depend ne upon uncertain be 191 lour of coltivators cianot go together under any system of plannino The revent experience of the GIF cumpaign ould show that our fear are not entirely unfounded it s not intended that capital t s.1ould instead be allowed the monopol over the use of irrigation water manure and power and thus be allowed to expicit the poor culuratows und the general tar payer We have no desire to enter into the controre si of Capitalism rersus So talism and Communism but wish to record that radical change in the ocial and psycholo ical et up of of th society are essential to achicie a hugh level of efticiency which the Plan presumes and on the base of whi h the targets of produce in the plan are likely to be achtered whether in the matter of commercial or tool-grains produce by the use of irrigation mit rs manures and power Those psicho logial change cannot in any we be expected to the place prior to 193-1-56 One more dılerınız has to be faced wh noge finds dnerc arguments put forward regarding the material for construction (eurth masonry crete) of dim and also regarding the u e of foreign ma hinery power known to be available in India One heurs trong argument both a favour of wrthen and masonrs (or concrete) dams for reservoirs under con truction We shall purposely keepers of very high dam out of account Thus one finds a lire dam like the Hirakud being constructed of earth That 131 be due ope muht inſer te scarcity of or long lel of stone there But one al o hears of the Gangpur Dim in Bombas being constructal in earth though the lend of stone there i small and hydraulic fimr arzılable understood that natore sites with good foundations utable for me onrı lams were available there but that an arthen dam ris estimated to be cheaper as OT Con terus men ·rates wath earth moving machinery were expected to be low If the arguments in favour of earthen dams nre sound and acceptable m the case of the Ganga pur on the grounds of cuonomy one should not find many dams with mediam heights being constructed in masonry Stringek cnough however one finds an important dam (with mediocre height) the the Tungabladra being con structed of masonrı It is suitrying to note that whether the proposal is for constructing 1 dan in earth work or of ma onry it is zavariably supported by strong arguments based on grounds of economy Earthen dams being generally constructed by curth moving machines the problem of selection betwera an earthen dam and a masonry dam boils down to machubery Effsus man power Iet another dilemma pertains to cannuls in South India and their long lengths Txample may be quotes of the eandal from the gata Tunga bhadra Rerervoir The II derabad side canal to hese & length of 127 mules (exclusive of a large continuation branch at tal) wlule the Vadras side is to late 205 miles The length of the Nira Right Banh Canal was proposed (1x 1017) by the Gosernment of Bonday to be cut down from 10w to 89 miles Lut the Government of India insisted on its ben, constructed the full len,th with the idea of conmmanding and lunce of protecting) arcis in the famise zone at t Thit past 35 year have seen the oil portion beyond mile 70 to bc virtually dry Simlir conditions prcvarl on the Nizamsagar Canal (in II; der ibad) ało The Tun, abhadra Canals nie in every respect comparable to the Nr Nht Insierd of hihin, a lesson from the past «xperience the Tung ubladrı (anals are not oal going to repeat but to aggravate the error Igain existing cand she the Nizamsagar has fuled to carry thu de igned di charge Against 3 400 (uses fox whilst was designed the Nizam nyar cant has been able to carry a maximum of only - 000 cuscus Against I JUU (u e (actually 1,80 сuse s to which the Nira Right Danh Canal was designed it could not till after recent remodelling cury eren 1 050 cusecs safels after remodelling a certain flumcl uit designed to carry 1 300 succes coul I not it has been ascertained fry more than 1 0-0 vuse s The mistahe is 1 understood duc to incorrect design of flumel rochy cuts and ci en hining of canals will not impre matters It is a pity that these wanın,' appear to fall oa de curs of the ca, ineers and administrator While soine difference n additional sut turn of grain per acre sirgatud by different scheme 1 clifferent tracts 2 bound to occur depend upon the quantity of water available in storager reservoir and its trncly supply the variation to be surprisin ly unusual Unfortunately we could not get front au the States information up their schemes but the limited data available oregulli cient by flicenseles to allow en kies to be formed Thus the Blakra Manual Project expect the additional grain (rice) to bc 58 maunds per acre the Yalanndı Project assume it to be Imaunds while the Belan in U P puts the figure al onh Thme diſereace ale loo large to be & cepted The figures for Kulhya Pradesh leatc us to wonder whether they shoull be called anomalous or absurd That State expects the additional out tura We find ·of food per acre from Minor irigation to be larger than that per acre served by Vajor The wide dispırıty in figures (ranging from 5 for Belan to 50 for Bhakri) need no further comment wis PART 2 (1) RETURNS FROM IRRIGATION WORKS AN APPRAISAL The Report of the Planning Commission and the DSI have furnished some data regarding the magnitude of the investment effort in the sphere of agr culture and irri ation and the returns in terms of produce expected of that investment cffort It is usual to accept the statistical data s pplied by authorities like the Planning Commission as reliable and correct This confidence hower at under-mined Owin, to variou reasons nd we considered it hı,hly desirable-nay essential to-examine figures of investment effort and the returns envia ed by some simple method An attempt was considered necessary to ascertain whether the benefits of irrigation expressed in terms of money value of additional produce are consistent with the investment effort provided in the Plan This enquiry was under talen in respect of the following irrigation schemes (1) Major Irrigation Schemes i e State Irrigation Projects and the Vulti purpose Schemes () Minor Irr gation Schemes (3) 111 Irrigation Schemes both Major and Minor As suthicient data about ins estments and returns was not available in the Report we had to make certain safe alternative assumptions about capital investment and about the proportion of commercial produce (Page 18-219 of the Report) expected from each of the 3 groups The results of our enquiry expressed in terms of ratios of investment on arrigation per rupee worth of annual additional produce may conveniently be summarized as follows - Major Irrigation - Total investment=Rs 305 crores or alternatively Rs 380 crores (a) Value of food and entire commercial produce =Rs 13 crores Ratio of capital to rupee worth of annual additional produce - Rs 1 or alternatively Rs 18 (b) Value of food and 2/3rds commercial produce = Rs 1-1 crores Ratio of capital to rupee worth of annual additional produce -- Rs I 8 or alternatu ely Rs 2 (c) Value of food and 1/3rd commercial produce=Rs 1'8 crores Ratio of capital to rupee worth of annual additional producer Rs or alternatively Rs 30 2 Minor Irrigation - Total investment =Rs 90 crores (a) Value of food only =Rs 77 crures Ratio of capital to rupee worth of annual additional produce= Rs 1 2 1 ·() Talue of food and 1/3rd of commercial produce=Rs 10 crores. Ratio of capital to rupee worth of annual additional produces Its 08 3 All Irrigation Total investment =Rs 395 crores or alternatively Rs 470 crores (a) Value of food and entire commercial produce=Rs 290 crores Ratio of capital to rupee worth of annual additional produce Rs 1 $ or alternatively Rs 10 (6) 1 aluc of food and 23rds commercial produce=R$ 218 crores Ratio of capital to rupee worth of annual additional produce = Its I or alternatively Rs 19 (c) Value of food and 1/3rd commercial produce u Ns "OJ crores Ratio of capital to rupee worth of annual additional produce Ns 1 ar alternatively Ns 23 It would be worthwule to verify and test the feasibility of these ratios in the light of our past experience with regard to the productivity of existing irrigation works for which figures are as silable accounts having been raun tained He thercfore workeul out for the existing irrigation works (by the u c of sutable conflictents) figures for capital per rupte worth of additronal annual produce attributable to irrigation The relev ant figures are presented in the following Talle TABLE showing Camlat per rupce torth of annual ad htional puro lxce for exis!ın irrigation uorks Capital per supuee worth of annual additional product allocable to 18518 ONS Type of work Mraumur Proba bl 1 4 1 Hicr cum dus crsson Canals Rs 7 Rs 10 Barrigc eum her son capais 0 Canals from reservoirs on dependable risers 3t) #Caarls from resertairs on non-dependable streams 40 50 ·(13) While comparing figures for existing canals for different provinces it was noted that the ratios are lower in the Punjab and Uttar Pradesh than in the other provinces This is so mainly because the canals in these above named provinces are largely diversion canals which do not involve heavy investment on the construction of storage reservoirs On the other hand in provinces like Bombay and Madhya Pradesh the ratios are much higher mainly because the canals there are largely fed by resers Oirs which require for their construction a much larger Capital expenditure It is necessary to note in this connection that 2. very large number of the major irrigation scheme under the Five I ear Plan are reservoir schemes not only in the South but also in the North A compari on shows that the ratios which we have derived for the new irrigation works are but a fraction of tho e actually found to be necessary for the existing re ers oir irrigation systems We could not persuade ourselves to accept these low ratios and base a stro suspicion that the over zealous technicians in their anxiety to make their schemes appear more respectable than they a tually are huve underestimated the capital requirements of and / or they have grossly over estimated the returus from the new schemes The very fact that the e timates of cost in r pect ot a large number of irrigation schemes are being continuously revised upu rds is. a sufficient indication that the capital requirements were ab initio unduly under estimated The data produced is sufficient to convince any one that the investment proposed to be made on urigatioł s heme is very inad quate and that the additional produce (parliculurly of food grains) would be only a fraction of what as ensisa,ed in the Report A comparison between (1) figures of intestment per rupee worth of additional piodi ce for type 3 ie resers or cum canal schemes in the table & page ?" and (") figures of capital provided fur ma or minor and all irri, ation schem s as recorded above clearly shows that the Report prosules only about one rupee ( ard not more than three rupees) per rusee worth of additional produce wherea. Rs 20 were required for eustin, major irrigation works We have examined above the figures of inte tments for all irrigation works put together We shall try presently to fird out whether and if so how for me can check the investments on individual schemes (2) Examination of individual schemes in the DSV The most suitable and dependable method for testing the suff ciency or otherwise of capital provided for a gas en project is by comparison with figures of capital required for sirakur projects actually con tructed in the past Such a comparison is honerer made difficult as figures for capital ond returns have ·(14) not been given in the DSI for many individual or lumped schemes pointed out before many small schemes have not been printed in the DSV Even if lumped figures of espenditure and of produce nere made available separately for petty schemes filling under the broad categories vz (1) Minor arrigatun vorhs (?) land reclamation (3) fertilizers and (b) improred seed they would hoe been useful for analysis As such figures have not been gren we found ourselves unshle to correlate statewise figures of areas gren in Ippendices R and (on pages 221 and 27% of the Report) and those of produce of fool by each of the four measures (guen on page 21* of the Report) Any attempt it utilizing the data referred to abore we made extremely difficult oing to the additional fact that the figures of commerenl produce by each of the measures were not shown separately m Appendix II at pages 918 and 319 of the Neport Igain the targets printed in the DS hare not been expressed in terms of unform units like aditional screage or quantum of additional produce Siace the targets have been expressed in widely different units by different States it was not possible to ascertain the adequacy or otherwise of capital per unit It is impossible to examine the schemes the trgets for which werc gnen by the states concerned in units of the following types 1 Numbers of schemes (Binor irrigation pumps etc) Vumber of farms 3 Number of wells 4 Number of tractors purchased Lening apart cases of schemes the targets of wuch were given in uns recorded above the targets adopted for the rest were also not unform fact in about 90 schemes under agriculture the torgets have not been shown at all! It is not hosn why the States concerned did not or could not supply figures of targets for nearly all the schemes in the DS list for Agricul and particularly why the Planning Commission did not insist upon obtoung the ligures in some useful units tz in tons or mauads or number of bales or at least a res benefiting by t'se schemes ture Comments and findings from figures were figures were available in the D1 are offered below Several anomaises cum to notice by #tudy of figures of sehemes of minor ir ation in the I) SI Unfortunately figures of produce per arte arc available diretk frosi lata in the DS sa the case of 4 schemes only Even these expose anom ulics 78 shown in the table on the nest page The figure of ad litoral produce per irrigated re in the case of the three schemes « Hisore world cried apcal ust ince of incongruity It is note worth that all the LISEC ) cines come under the category of Minor irrigation ·(15) S No in D.S State Name of Scheme Produce in pounds per acre Figure work d out from data for individual sche mes in the DS V Actual 1 2 8 4 4 Assam M I Works 32 Mysorc Desilting old Tanks 336 5 Tank feeder and pick up chann ls 3 Subsidy for Wells 1190 and belong to the same State of Mysore In the case of the schemic called Subsidy for Wells every irrigable acre is expected to provide more than three times as much additional out-turn as that expected of the scheme desıltıng old tanks The anonaly does not however end sith that corrigendum we still find oursels es facing worse types of anomalies In the list of works under Agriculture for Assam we get figures of additional produce expected by five different types of amenities shown in the Table printed on page no 16 11 hile we have nothing to say against mechanical cultı stion as such re were not aware that it was so effective a n caşure as to be able to supply annually ton of additional grain per acre of area benefited calo dict not know that in Issam Improrel Sceds could make as large an addition to produce per acre as the supply of irrigation facilities We did not at the sam time hnow that the supply of impro; d seeds was such a rostly item Hien assuming that the figure "-00 represented the tonnage of seed and not of ordinary grain Rs 4 317 per tort of seeds is too fantastic ure to be true Seed nuts fleed more capital per ton tlan food but not 10 times as much Similarl B's "80 is a tremendously high figure whether it is per ton of manures or per ton of additional food produced annually by that manure There i oby jously something iery definitely wrong with the figures Our curiosity was particulararoused by the scheme of Plant Protection for Assam This s heme appears to be capable of adding annually a tono food to Assam s granary at a paltry expense of Rs 19!! Agiu ·(16) ( Table referred to in para 2 at pa e 15 ) og by Scheme Area No # 6 nefit the Type of Amenity list for amenny Assam DSV Actes Tons of Produce Additional produce expect d xpected per atre corres ponding to figs Тон by the aisesity Capital required Total Per addi trocai for Scheme ion of poduce Lakh Rupees to Cols Pounds Rupees 2 3 + 5 7 8 Iechanised Cultivation 3 1 000 * 500 1/2 1120 25 300 Marior Irrigation 4 5 08 000 -30 000 About 1/ 320 1889 260 Vonures 5 ro C000 1 000 80 478 4"80 Seeds & 0 000 200 1/75 300 3166 4317 Plant Protection 7 135 000 *9 000 1/5 21 430 19 WE in out turn per acre due to the Plant Protection Scheme is 11 times as much as by mino irrimation On pantla fire grounds the figures of out turn 25sunid p r acre and capital sequsreci per acte or per ton appear be tar from reasonable t'Eus the Vysore State is found to expect 14 meunds of additional produce per acre by pro din, sul s d for cli The same State expects to add over I maunds of produce ce acre by Tank (reil r and pick-up channels The fiue o capital per acre irrigable by minor irrigation schemes varies from Rs 1 for Hunlar t } -"! per acre of flow srrigation for Vadhya Pradeda Ile rutil jer tus of ani sal additional produce stuhily Farics from Rs "Ir 1571 to 1s 110 or by ore (both figures for flow ries tion and I oths 13 dirith indita gusen the d tuled I st of worhs in the PS!) In the f I el also Is 310 per acre are nceded by Vidhya }}}xarat while Ils ! 101 Tue Bir required by Wysore In the cas of Pumps V kun Murat 1r> Is Ps 481 pct acte wule lep u need is 500 per acre Here as art that the atte k not an kleal unit for comparias capital cepend ture on litigation works unless we hnow that the crop prttern in all the cases with But even a ter keeping the above in frund wat find the disparity to be too ssde 82 ·(17) We shall next consider schemes for Mechanical Cultivation and Tractors Out of th 11 schemes for which targets are given in the DSV only two schemes give figures of produce one under liechanical Cultivation and the other under Tractors In the ca e of Mechanical Cultivation Assam gises figures both for acres benefiting and for produce That help to show that that province expects to add 11.0 lbs 1 e 14 maunds of ric (about "O maunds of paddy) by mecha nical cultivation ser acre We consider that figure to be too high Exa mming figures of capital per acre benefiting by mechanised cultivation ong finds the Punjab providing Rs no per acre while Bombay provides Rs 313 per acrel in examination of figures foi tractors reveals a very wide variation the Union Government provides about 100 Rs per acre while Vindhra Pradesh needs Rs 380 per acre while Vadhya Bharat provides Rs 1a0 per acre Madhya Pradesh the nei,hbour State needs Rs 3700 per acre i e nearly times ] $ In the case of CTO the total fi, ure of acreage as given in the DSV list 1s 10 50 000 while that given on pare ne of the Report is 14 16 000 ! One therefore finds hin self completely confused and does not know which of the two fi.ures should be accepted as correct" As rerards reclamation of waste lands we find that indhya Pradesh provides Rs 500 per acre of wasto land reclaimed while Bihar considers a pro v1310n of Rs 39 per acre to be sufficient for the same purpose The latter is only about 8 of the former! We are not quite sure whether it was worth while reclaiming ordinary (2 e unırrı able) lands at a cost of Rs 500 per acre in Vindhya Pradesh While going through the figures of cost of contour bunding etc it 19 noticed that 3 out of the States that supply figures of cost and area for con toir bundin appear to require a sum in excess of Rs 30 per acre It is difficul to understan i this high figure In fact UP neds Rs 470 per acre for contour bundhis Exen Vindhya Pra lesh needs Rs 110 per acre for con tour bundin Contour bunds in other States are known to cost onls about Rs 60 per acr- (including oser hearl ) csen where waste weirs are provided Vinile studyin, fure for Land Reclaimation our attention war parti cularly drawn to the foot note to Ippendis ! page 29" of the Report Wc mere surprised to notice that out of the 3 60 million acres to be reclaimed or des eloped by other means including fallows 3 million acres were to be reclaimed by only two States —" million actes by Hyderabad and 1 million acres by Yadlısa Pride 1 In order to verify figures of Capital prosaded naturally opened at p ge 8. of the DSI for Hyderabad but found that there was not a single cheme winch prouided capital required for this purpose We then returned to page 11 in the DSI for Vadhya Pradesh to find pro vision of capital for one million acres IIcre too we were disappointed. The same was true of Vadhs a Bharat and Bihar which proposc to deal with 3 70 000 acres and 80 000 acres respectively by other means Te 1 ·(18) Per unit one WC A study of the few schemes that lend themsek es to verification shows very wide dispuit in the provision of capital raade by the different States A disparaty of 1 to 10 is not uncommon and that of 1 to 4 almost normal Actually we met wath cases where the displity in provision of capital per unit was even in excess of 1 to 25 He however suggest a way out to aplain the serious anomaly by hunting that the figures of targets were then selt es probably incorrect in mny cases If such as the case we doubt the ut Iity of the DSI it is dangerous to depend upon such figures cannot know which out of those may be wrong We have noticed that na targets hve been given for 79 schemes under Agriculture in the DST We may ask a pertinent question wlint steps did the Planning Commission take to obtain the motination sceded? Are to suppose that the States in question refused to give figures for targets even after being requested to supply the same About 35 la of the schemes under Agriculture have no targets shown against them Only about "of the schemes gne targets in useful units We suppose that at the Plannug Commission had taken the necessary pains and pressed for figures for tergets for as many schemes as possible and that too in uniform and useful units (wiuch should have been suggested by the Commission themselves) the States would certainly have supplied them Thc Planning Commission would then have been able to provide really useful data (3) Major Irrigation We have seen how the production targets arred are out of all proportion to the investment plannel The object of this Section is to detail the relation between the mput of resources for increasing productive caparity and the output of goods that the Commissain expert as far as the Majar irrigation toths are concerned Such a close examination is however extremely difficult for the simplc reason that the volumno us documents that the Commission hic brought out do not pros alc any opportunity to do so The Report no doubt on es the figures of targets of fool-grains from the Vajor irrigation projects in exel State but we are luft on the dark as regards the tonnage of food that the different indy ideal projects could be cxpected to veld The figures show the total area of mire! crops that is goin, to {e bencfstel creli induidual project tut there is no informat in about the at 1 under different crops put of the total area It has been arride n intel out th t the Report docs not shor wh t portion of the rulditunel commercial proluc is expected from Vajot Triation as a whole sa India or from Vår imigation works in each State-not to speak of that from each Vor dreigation scheme lor kes this information us wable cien after writing letters examine in some There a thus no sitern tre but to eraman 117 Ome detail a few typical schemes inf rma ı ın absut which happened to be published i ·(19) technical journals All we need to record here is that these projects were chosen not because we had any pre-inclinatrous towards them but only because articles on those projects happened to be published in the journals in the form of technical papers The Major irrigation reservoir schemes in the Five Year Plan may be divided into the following three categcries for the purpose of our examination I Perennial canal schemes with very large reservoirs (and with large areas of commer al crop ) This type has an unfailing and large storage reservoir with large perennial canals The Krishnaraj agar of Vysor the Nizomsagar of Hyderabad the Mettur of Madras and also the Mira Pravara and Godavarı canals of Bombay fall under thi category The Tungabhadra project and also the Irrigation parts of some Multi-purpose projects (pages 124-125 of the DSV ) fall under this category II Reservoirs in tracts havin, fairly good rainfall with canals mainly for rice and some commercial crops — Tanks and canals having rice as the main crop to be irrigated in medium to lar, rainfall tracts constitute this type Many tanks like the Tendula in MP fall under this category The Mayurakshi in West Bengal and the Belan in U P fall under this category so do the irrigatron canals in the DC project which have rice as the main crop III Tanks on non perenn al rivers in low rainfall areas - The Mhaswad tank in Bombay is an existing example of this type The Moj in Saurashtra and the Ranand in Bombay fall into this category We shall take up for analysis and detailed study representative schemes from each of the 3 types Ixamination of a scheme of Type I ( Large I eseriors with perennial canals ) Repres ntatie Tungabhadra (Hyderabad side) As already stated the offreral publication gives a figure of irrigable area of mixed crops but without the break up of that figure even by important crops We had therefore to depend upon information in an article written by an official in the P W D of the lIyderabad State appearing in the March 1953 issuc of the Journal of the Institution of Engineers India Since the information was nauable in the sud article for the IIyderabad-side canal only we wc taling up that project for a detailed study Th article supplies the names of crops and also the break up of weas by crops The trei copected to be irrigated by the IIyderabad canal 9 50 000 acres os itimable after completion Vow this is more than double the 50 000 acres shown in the DSV Thus wide difference is very 19 are? 12 ·surprising The only possible tray to make the two figures necord poud be by presuming firstly that the arct of about it lahh actes mentioned in the said article as consisting of pastures forests and green manures are the crops that are expected to be irrigated onls when water is not in demand for the other crops and secondls that the areas guen in the 1'an trerc alout nad of those guten in the article and that the pattern of crops shonn in the te linical article remained unchange! It is proposed to test whether the uz cr available in the reservoir and the discharging <sp?city prouded are adequate for the requirements of the crops for the area shown as tigable in the DS! 112 50 000 acres is not intended to do this is the orthoulor method of werhin, out irrigible arcas by assuming figures of dut: the inch depth water per rotation and per season eic We propose liere an casy and simple metliod and which has the merit of not clouding the judgement of the non te hnca rcadler 121) high sounding technical terms This c253 and the most practical le method is to compare the figures of arers of crops cxpected to be irrigated usth the figures of areas zeri, ated on an custing comparable prigation system 111c most suitable base for compar sou is the Mira cidal system in the State of Bomory The annual rainfull in the coramanded areas of the Vita Canals 28 of the same order as that in the areas commanded by the Tungabhadrn Coor! Lastly the designed discharchun, capacity of the Tungabhadra canal on the II derabad side is 33.0 cusecs shile that of the Mirn canals as about ou The ira ennals system is therefore the most suitable and stick for measuring the Tungabhadra cusecs Calculations show that Hyderab.ds share in the storage of Tungabhadra Reservoir as well us the discharging capacity (patiow th the latter) will both be insufficient to trigate the 40 000 acres Strigl is however not an insurmountable diMiculty Little cas houes er be done regarding the defective discharging capacity of the cal which is hopelessly on Fren the designed capacity is not ex ea co of that is likely be required to irrigate satisfacto rily all the crops But that is not all the canal sill not be able to convey the 8150 cusors as designed The actual flischargint capacity (of the irriga tion canal 7 desa med and construeted) Jour calculations shon be onls about 83 of what will be required to irrigate properly the areas of crops totalling 4 50 000 acres as quoted in the DSI Our calculations indicate that crops on 4 lakhs of acres (as ensisaged in the Plan) and with the pattern guten in the ublished paper on the Tungabhadra (except for forests pastures and green manures) ws] oced (1) å storage of 65 000 m c ft against woco m cft av viable and (2) a minimum discharging crpreita of 6 000 cusces (and a desirable dis charging capacity of – L01) cusees) against 3 120 cu ces designed and about 800 cusces likely to be 21 dilable according to our calculations ·ft presum It is true that the areas to be irrigated as envisaged by the Planning Commission arc smaller than those mentioned in the technical paper referred to above That does not however mean that the fimures of areas in the Plan are therefore correc and safe Calculation show that the area of food crops will be only 50 000 cres and not 38 000 expected out of 41 lakh acres owing to the capacity of the canal being insuff cient This drastic reduction 21 no doubt be accompained by a substantial ncrease in the wrei of cane but that is no solution to the thorny problem of grain shortage The dras ic change m the pattern of crops is due to the fact that a given stora e can be utilized with an insufficient carrying capacity orly by 2 large increase in perennial crops like cane accompained by a very drastic reduction in the area of seasonal (grain, cotton etc ) crops We might also consider areas of crops likes to be irrigated in case the stora, e was raised from 56 000 to 45 000 mc ing that the discharging capacity of 3 150 cusecs Bas available Even so the area of food crops will still fall short of 1 00 000 acres against 38 000 acres planned and that of cotton will be 40 acres against 000 acre planned Unfortunately the Report as well as the technical paper referred to abore have not shown anywhere the figure of out turn per acre or the total out turn expected strong indirect evidence however shows that Hyderabad expects more than 17 maunds of grains per acre This is a very hi h figure ind is possible only with a small figure of duty Our assumption of la ge discharging capacity for the Tungabhadra is therefore quite in keeping with the expecta tions of additional out turn The method followed to work out the discharging capacity required by a canal will be found explained in Part 3 This knotty problem has been studied sery carefully in the Bombay State particularls on its fire major irrigation systems ti Mutha Nira Prata Godavari and Girpa The method is nown ss the A I/DC (which is the short form of area irrigated per day cusec ) method From information available it can safely be stated that the disch rging capacity of the Tungabhadr canal on the Mysore side is for more defective than that on the Hyderabad s de For reasons similar to those qu ted in the ca e of the anal on the 1}yderabad side the dischargin, capacity of the Mysore-Andhri side canal will fall short of es en 1300 cusecs against 1" cusecs designed end of about 6 000 cusecs required Some would find it difficult to believe that the Croject Engineers and Administrators who worhed out and sinctioned the scheme could commit such blunders They may also feel that at least. the Planning Commission would not allow such mistakes and blunders to go unnoticed We have no desire to discuss this difficult question and record an unp latable reply Time alone » || prove or disprove our pred: tion Honcier we shall take an example from them 11s derabad State itself in slew of the fact that the Tungabhadra cannal discussed abose was also at State ·(12) We shall take the example of the drzamsogar Project of which the Hyderabad State is naturally proud That irrigation scheme was expected in the year 1992 to irrigate annually an area of 30 000 acres and chc&rctum of about 15 per cent Estimates were sessed & years later the originally estimated cost of Rs 3 crores had shot up by then to Rs 1 crores the revised return had fallen from 15 per cent to 108 per cent the res is a ligure of ares expected to be irrigated being 27 000 acres However cich these lattet figures wcre after all estimates Actually the area srrigated on the Vizam sagar Canal in the year 195 -3 has been ascertained to bc only 1 3 5.0 acres 18 corroborated by a official publication of the lyderabad State which states the figure of imgated area as about 1 17kh acres only The arci Irrigated is only about w5 per cent of the cresised estimated figure (retised in 1930) ond only about 47 per cent of the figure of irrigable are estimated by the Chief Engineer of Hyderabad in 192 The return originally estimated at iv per cent dwindled down to 108 per cent on the estimate being revised years later It is no wonder therefore that the return actually obtained on the said scheme was insufficient to pay off even the interest charges not to mention depreciation. Not only is the area irrigated by the Nizamsagat ever 25 years after tue canat was openedés e after full period required for gestation and developm ment was over) only super coat of what was estrmoted 8 years after the project was suntioned but the out-turn of crops too is small The defectue discharging capacity of the Tungabhadra Canal will affect tery seriously the produce of food grains in particular The gener public arc under the impression that the sve Yezt Plan was particularly intended to increase India s production of food gratas whereas schemes like the Tungabbade (as designed) will irrigate only a fraction (about {th to th) of tbe scrcage of foodgrains expected of them Cenerally speaking the total produce (mcluding grains and commercial commodities) on the lungabhadra Canal Hıdarabad side will be less than 50 per cent of what could be crpettel Icom ateis shown as irrigable 38 the technical paper rofered to above and less than 3 rd of what we presume as expected by the plan As the Plan dues not give figures of arcas of different crops (even for projects of the magnitude of the Tungabhadra) and certainly not of the produce of commodities we canns express ourselves more explicitly Examination of a scheme of Type I (Vedium si e tants mainly for rice crop) Nepresentative Mayuralslu Tlsts project is tuten for comparison as a tсehnical article on that has been published in the journal of the Institution of Engineers (India) in 19: As in the case of the Tungabhadra the Mayurakshi also grossly over estimates 3 ·123) acres its out turn of food rains The Vayurakshi Project is very defective in the discharging capacity of its canals Bengal s irrigation works in the past were weir-cum canals the most important being the old Damodar canal taking off from the Anderson leir No yard stick from Bengal itself is therefore available He would therefore compare it with the Belan of U P for which also a technical article has heen published in the Journal of the Insti tution of Engineers (India) The article on the Belan makes it clear that it was prepared on the basis of results obtained on the existing Ghaghar canals in the UP The Mayurakshi expects to irrigate 7 20 000 acres while the Belan expects to irrigate 3) 000 The length of the Mayurakshi Canal is 140 miles while that of the Belan is only '9 miles It will thus be seen that the Belan is a much smaller scheme as compared to the Vayurakshi The Mayurahshi is expected to irrigate 18 times as much area as the Belan Obviously therefore the percentage losses (of water) in transit in the Mayurakshi are bound to be much larger than those in the Belan This in other words requires that the figure of duty for discharging capacity of the canal 10 the case of Mayurakshi hould be smaller than that of the Belan Published data however show that the duty adopted for designing the canal for the Mayurakshi is actually in excess of that adopted in the design for the Belan Not only does the Mayurakshi provide a much smaller discharging capacity (for equal areas of crops ) but also expects a much larger additional out turn per acre irrigated While the Belan expects only 5 maunds of grains per acre the Mayurakshi expect two and a half times that figure which the technical paper states in unequivocal terms is the additional yreld Obulously it is the case of a two fold mista' e defective discharging capacity and unjusti fiably high yields Information collected shows tha most of the schemes in the Five Year Plan under this category are also designed with high duties and yet the additional yield expected is about 3 and in some cases 4 times of what could reasonably be expected with the hith figures of duty adopted for discharging c pacity of canas etc Broudly speaking therefore the projec which fall into this category can be expected to yield only about 25 per cent and at the most 83 per cent of the additional output of grains expected by the Commission We have stated that we could not obtain from most State Governments data about different crops expected on the individual major irrigation schemes in the Fue Icar Plan \fter sert strenuous efforts we could obtain infor mation on the break up by crops in one State These figures however only helped to aggravate our doubts and fears He found that Projects to imigate 70 per cent of lards proposed to be irrigated by Forks listed as State Irrigation Projects for one State during the period of the plan were still in the embryo and get the Plan expects * quantities of produce from them to be as ailable ·(24) by 1955-56 There was yet another surprise in store Gung by the dats supplied to us we were surprised to find that the irrigible er under the State Irrigation Projects for that Statc do not include a single rerc of crop to produce the commercial commodities to be produced by the State Regarding canals in one important Vults purpo c project (wsth rier as the main ctop) the officers concerned were frank enough to openly admit that the crop pattern far that scheme was not yet decided upon thugh detailed pl and estimates were drawn up asul although the canol were constructe l or bein constructed! He began to suspect from the reluser in the IT most Statc to supply ngures of break up of crops and of produ e ett ether works > major wrigation projects (Irsted in the DSI) verc !on, cons ru ted! thera also without any pattern of crops or of producc b in fixed in advance Examidation of a scheme of Type III Resenoir schemes in lon rainfall tracts Representatne Schemes Moy in Saurashion and Ronani?n Bombay The No, has at the site of the dam a catchment of sy sq miles The designed storage is 1 310 mc at the area to be irricated being 15 000 acres Thuis works out at about 12 acres expected to be irrigated gier mn cito storage Ia similar tracts provided with similar types of resers ours in the casters parts of Maharashtra the area frigated per 3 ft of designed storage (average for about 6 years } was only 38 acres Obviously therefore the area expected to be irrigated by the Moj s ptched far too mgh being more than 3 tmes of wint wuld reosanably be expected by comparison with sumularly sytuated earsting works of comparable magnitude and with comparable environment Another e ample of this category is that of the Ruand 20 the Bombay State The designed storage capacity of the Round bove the sill level of outlet is 2 5 m cft and the area expected to be irrigated 15 3 000 acres This works out st 13 acres per m < ft as ng unst only 98 acres per m c it the actual average over 20 years for smal or irrigation schemes in Bombay arca assumed to be irrigated per m < ft of designed storage is therefore more than 3 times of what has been actually obtained in practice in the past and at least twice of what could be cupected on optimisti assumptions It may particularly be recorded that the area (serane for years} strigated by the Nhaswad tank system (situatıl vers close to Ranud) was only about 4 acres per m cft of designed storage capacity There 24 stell another rery important defect in the Ranssid Resery or Scheme The catchment area of the Ranud is a part of the catchment of the existing Ilhaswad tana Obviously what wall be stored in the Nanand will represent a loss.It least partiy-to Vhosuad as thus latter is found not to fill for 4 years out of 10 shen demand for water for food grain crops is ·keen We should not therefore expect any substantial net addition to the acreage irrigated as well as to the additional output of food by the construc tion of the Ranand one Whichever type of irrigation schemes is taken up for examination would come to the irre istible conclusion that the areas to be irrigated and consequently the net addition to the output have both been over estimated This conclusion is further buttressed by the scrutiny of figures of duty adopted on these irrigation schemes Our tudy exhibits a uniform and signficant trend toward serious over-estimation of areas and output particularly of food grains now (4) Minor Irrigation We have examined typical Major irri ation works and have also commented upon certain important defects It has been shown that the additional output. of food-grains in particular was glossly over estimated He would etamine Minor Irrigation works included in the Plan As has been repeatedly stated before the Report does not give the breakup of figures of targets of commercial produce for each State and for each of the four measures 12 major irrigation minor irrigation land reclamation and xxproved seeds Figures of such break up have been furnished only for food grains It is true that the Report shows separate State wise figures of acres to be rrigated by Major and Vinor irriation unfortunately however such figures are for mixed (food and commercial) crops Minor urigation works are generally speaking expected to produce mainly food grains It would be therefore m order to expect that figures of out turn obtained by dividing figures of produce of food by that of area irrigable by minor irrigation works for difierent States with comparable conditions of rain fall should not differ widely though there may be one or two exceptional cases Such figures represent the minimum out turn per acre expected by the State for all its Vinor Irrigation works It is however surprising that the figures differ rather widely particularly in tracts with medium and low rainfull Considering the States with medium rainfall we find that Hyderabad expects a minimum of 1 330 lbs of additional produce per acre due to minor irrigation and Vadras also expects a minimum of about 1 150 lbs U P and Mysore on the other land appear to place their minimum expectations of additional out turn at a figure of about 150 lbs which is just about one third of what Hyderabad hopes to secure The expectations of the Ilyderabad and Vadras States are obviously extravagant They arc 3 to 4 times of what could reasonably be expected Considering cases of States with lon rainfall mer expect an additional output of 1 500 lbs or 19 maunds per acre and thus outbids II derabad and Badras Rajasthan and the Punjab in the same group expect less than 300 lbs ·med orth of all mal produce On examination of figures for individual Stor is found that Orsa pr nades only Its go and Its dlcralad less than Rs 10 ton of annu al lust:o 33 por nute ir son muc by VP 15 nat 50 wlule that made in VID and Truter xhin appears to be fairly i able Bomhix and Vissed at upku ti proide sufficiently for the pur In the case of tire rumm, Stite the investment provided is cert joadeunte The above is equitły well rellerted in the figures of capital per worth of additional; luce flere , un the only states which makc provision of capital art Vullit 1 Blirat nul Trasancore Cochin Don YPU I and Masore pr de Rs t Rs 1 per rupec worth of a additional prolece Bilar Vidms I unjah, liest Bengal Pepsu Saura: and Part 0 states in cat only ab ut vid rupee to obtain & ruper tort adihtional output issum Orit a Hyderabad and Rajasthan ins est very m capita-onli a {ruction f starce per rupec wirth of annnal sclational pro Prov sion inade by India as a whole works out at an investment of anc per rupee worth of annual audit1073l pe vluce and this is just a fractio what w uld actually be required to att in the target Judging the avashable data which was supplementat by such eng 9 were possible we have been led to th inevitable carclusion that out area of 87 msson seres expected to be served by minor irrigation less 40 per cent is likely to be irrigied and in any case that out of the addit out turn of 178 million tons of food grains expected from minor irriga we are likely to secure less than 0 60 million tons White calculating the returns in terms of produce from minor irrig trorks we ought to take into a count one truportant fact ti the short 1 much works If the past tendencies could be projected into the the imme future not a few would regard this capital outlay as a waste (5) Land Reclamation Fertilizers and Improved Seeds The Report of the Plannins Commission provides separate figures of (in acres) for the following schemes (in 1000 acrers ) Central Tractor Organization 1 416 0 State frictor Organization 1 1991 Prit te P rties with state help Other means including fall ons 3 083 6 Total + 351 3 In additional to these some more neas are also to bc reclaimed by following me? ures -- (s) Nundin, dramage etc 30929 (6) Tech nical cultivatio 36" 8 ·Scrutinizing Figures for a T O one finds provision for capital outlas of Rs 508 lakhs made by Vadhya Pradesh and Utter Pradesh for CTO There is nothing to indic te whether these 508 lakhs of rupees were part of the capital expenditure of Rs 1 48€ lakhs by the Central Government ( item 80 page 0 of the DSI or is m addition to the investment of the Central Government The possiblity of double counting of costs and areas cannot be ruled out altogether In Vidhya Bharat Vindhya Pradesh and Bhopal also considerable areas are going to be reclaimed by tractor of the Central Tractor Organization i ut tliese C T O schemes are not mentioned in the DS Y lists for these States The costs per acre of land reclaimed by tractors have been given below for some of the States It is indced intriguning why the costs should differ sa markedly from one State to another Name of State Cost per acre reclaimed by tractors 1 Central Government Rs 139 or Rs 103 depending on whether 10 3 lakh acres (pages 20-21 of DSV) or 14 16 lakh acres (page222 of Report) was the correct figure Bih Rs 98 8 Madhya Pr de h Rs 3 700 for CTO tractors Rs 113 for for Machine Tractor Station 4 M dhya Bharat Rs 156 for Reclamat on by tractors Rs 167 for Departmental tractors 5 Vindhya Pr desh R 380 Te shall next consider whether the volume on Development Schemes contains the necessart information giving the names of schemes their estima ted costs and the targets fixed in the case of those States at least wbuch bave large areas to be reclaimed by various measures as shown in the Report. In the case of the followin, States large areas are shown in the Report to be reclaimed by State tractor orgaingation and by mechanical cultivation but there is no mention of a single scheme in the detailed lists in the DSV which is likely to reninım thnca are ·(39) the sad Appendur of the Report In the Punjab A scheme fo consolidatios of koldings is expected to consolidate an arca of 100 klases by 1055 6 This are also liads no mention sa column 5 of Ippenday at page 292 of the Report It is necssary to remember in this connection that the a tall sona ares of the Punjab us about 13 million acrcs only It }} thus be seen that the State aspoes to consolidate holdings over an arca of 10 million acte Out of the total sown area of 13 million acres by 1932 58 Considering the slot profess of consolidation of holdings in our country durin, the last churis suits this rata appears to be rather phenomenal! It is also sateresting to note that these 10 million acres would be consolidated during th period of the Plan at & cost of its 11 lakhs out of the total contemplate investment of its 101 This means that the balance of Ils 190 lahls wall be spent afto 1955 56 to consolidate the senho area of only 3 milles The cost of consolidation during the Plan period imonts t1 Annus per acre whuic that after 19-3 »6 would amount to Rs i per acre The Punja! Stacc and the Planing Commission Alon. know why the rot of consol«lalion per acre should suddenly jump up after 1995 ! The achievements of Pepzu nre csen more spectacular The net sown area of that state is e timatel at 48 lakh Acres The total area to be consolidatal in the State by 190w wo is also 18 likh acres The means that thus reform is going to be carried out over the entire sowo ares in the state 1 Sty Ratios of capital per ton for the combined figures of additional produce from the four measures viz Minor Irrigation land improsement Fertilizers and improved sced were purposely worked out as that reduces the number of assumptions to be made to Very mum Len the e$ UTFS exsbit wide differences as shown by the figures for the following States are Name of State Capital (10 rupees) per ton of annual additional produce Minimum Probabit lazu 50 60 2 3 570 Orissa Hyderabad Madhya Pradesh Madhya Bharat Mysore Saurashtra w70 $ 540 The several sostances (quote above) of sery wade differen cs a the protsion of capital per ton of produ e in the difereat States tend to show that apparently at least the Plannisa Camisession concentrated their attention on merely collecting the figures from the State witho t undertuling any cfective scrutny of these figures to $ ert in the rels ability o feasibility ·PART 3 (1) Adequacy of Capital for Irrigation Works A Test The usual method of estimating the capital expenditure on a gis en irri ation project and the returns from it i to curry out detailed surveys to prepare plans and to work out detailed estimates of costs This is a highly technical laborious and slow but an i navoidable process for normal administra tron The following is a list of the main types of errors found in a large mujority of rrigation proje ts (1) Insufficient storage per ecre expe ted to be irrigated (2) Storage capacity pros ided (and on which ar erage irrigable areas are based) being not available in year of sub normal rainfall A (3) Insufficient dischargin, capacity of the main canal distribatones and outlets etc (+) Insufficient provision for losses in transit r (5) Too large a figure assumed as out turn per acre irrigated (6) Total out turn per acre assumed (by oversight) as additional out tura (7) Additional out turn (differen e between an irrigated and unirrigated crop ) available in years of poor rainfall assumed as additional B available every year (8) Additional out turn per acre by both irrigation and manures presu med to be available owiog to irrigation only that available by the use of manures being thus counted twice (9) Additional out turn posible in the case of a few capable cultivators assumed as available from all cultit ator c (10) Underestimation of expenditure by providing insufficient rates for items of work Any attenipt by an indivdual to scrutinize projects with a view to verifica tron of each of the 10 points above (or of A B and C) is imposible parti cularly when little published data are available for guidance Some rough but dependable method (rule of the thumb type) for verification is therefore essential of serious overestimation of returns or urderestimation of expenditure is to be ay olded Such a rough but dependable and easy check is possible by comparing figures of capital and of returns expected from propo ed works with those of irrigation projects in actual eristence and that too in terms of ratio of the value of additional produce per unit of capital invested If the results of existing works are to be a guide for te ting the suffici ency of capital expenditure on the new Forks in the Five I car Plan it is essential to work out figures of capital anil of value of produce both for the same conditions of labour rates etc The booked capital of existing works mu t be ·tiers conserted to suit rates prcs alent during tlic pers I for wluh dala of product are available Ilang obia neel the figure of Lapital per rupee rrorth of ad latronal annual produce tre have to further mod ft thr $10c 3 AS to obtain figure for Capital per tunet worth of additional produce attributable to sirigation only as distinguished from Bertion! produce attributable to irrigation and manures 11,ures thus trorked out los that capital per rupee worth of adduucnil produce ( both in terms of the same period) on irrigation canals depends to a large extent upo : the pattern of irrigation work rnd tłuss is as it should be (apital required per rupie worth of additional produce (from both irri,ation end ma sures ) was found to be as under (figures are rounded off purposely ) Rupees (1) Weir cum diversion canals (on the flat tricts) from large 5/- (2) Barrage cum disersion canals from large ruters 30/- (8) Major resers our cum canals (on perenaral streiras) 15 to 20 (*) Vinor reservoir cum canals ( on non perennial streams) 25 to 30 A very large number of major armgation schemes in the Fire Icar Plan fall under category 3 and some under category 4 The above statement [tes ratios ( capital per rupee worth of additional annual produce ) for rigation works in existence in India in the fuest half of this century Ilorking out of these figurs was rendered somewhat easy because authentic figures were ai ailable for the year 1936 in the Report of the Irrigation Enqury Committee Bombay (1938) While there might be difference of opinion on minor points the figures of capital expenditure per rupee worth of annual produce shown in the Table at page 12 in part 2 will provide A very useful check without the danger of the main issue being distorted by the 8 defects listed above or by serious underestination of capital expenditure Data as silable do not permat State nise verifıcation for Major Irrigation Works Figures for a few works for which date were 91 axlable or could be secure have been worked out and shown below - Capital ja Rupees Name of the scheme Per rupee worth of anpu I produce Providd Minimum essentui Tungabhadra 43 20 Belan 20 Mayurakshi 37 Tapi (Wer scheme) Major irrigation sclients in & certain state 15 do SO 20 + ·It will be found that the provision of capital is very me igr The practical interpretation of this is that the produce actually available will be only a small fraction of what has been envisaged in the Report (7) Duty of water and Out turn by Irrigation and Manures Correlation between duty, additional out turn due to irrigation and limitations on the use of manures A good deal of misunderstanding appears to prevail even amongst Irriation En, ineers about the correct value of Duty to be adopted The term Duty is used in two markedly different l ranch s of designs of reservoir cum canals sistem of irigation (1) Duty for the purpose of stora,,e in a resers or and ( ) Duty for the purpose of discharging capacity of 1 cannal Dgie the ni mber of acres that can be irri,ated per m cft of storage will vary for a given crop with the local utilizable rainfall in a season on the field The larger the inch depth of sa h utilizable rainfall the larger the numb r of acres irriable per m c ft of storage for a given crop Dci e the fı,ure of acre expected to be irrigated per cusec of dis har ging capa ity does not on the contrary d pend upon and vary appreciably with the local rainfall as the capacity of the channel has to be suffciently large to discharge all the quantity of water needed during the months when the rainfall is nil or neligible As our aim is to produce laroe quantities of additional produce the capacity of the canal mtst be sufficient i e Dc mut be small enou, h to supply the full requirements of crops during periods when the rains fail It be recorded that proper understanding is necessary about th quantity of sto age in & resery oir and the discharging capacity of a canal required by a crop for (a) mere protection against draught (b) limited additional produce obtainable with limited resources and limited care of crop and (c) considerably increas d produce possible with timely agricultural operations like weeding and with timely and sufficient supply of manures Just as quite a large variation is found to exist in the amount of food consumed by human beings a similar large variation is also noticed in the values of Ds and Dc It cannot be said that whatever the type and quantity of food taken the strength remains unaffee ted It is true that a man only 6 ounces of rice does live but it would be wrong to expect him to have the strength of a sturdy soldier The correct figures of average yield from an acre of crop is the Average of yield of about 10 years some of which may have crees ise some no mal some poor and some very poor rainfall In 3 years out of 10 the rainfall may be very good in year it may be bad in 1 scar it may be very bad while in the remaing 4 years it may be called Ascra e 1 c it may not he called too bad or too good may fed on ·(36) If prossimi wati fairis satisfactors itin 1tion en al crage cultu ator Cullec maunds per acre to ders normal crop of the Pases of manures sufficistk large in quantity to yield large s ale additional proluce would be possible only when irritation m full doses ant whenes er required » assused eses during the Horst years II chemscal manures are gren to paddy and at the supph of ingation water is insufficient in a sex when rains fall the crop suffers seriously an the out turn is smaller than what 15 a1 Aylable on unirrigated fields Thus not only is the expenditure on the purchase of manures and labout on its application wasted hut what httle out turn would otherwise have licenavail ulc * also lost case the supply of water from a canal falls during periods shes the rains lait In shor the use of hem doses of manures is practicable and adurable only when full quantita fater needed by the crop us assured It should also be remembered that record crops obtained by a handful of individuals ss no guide to what can be expected of normal cultivators on normal fields The additional out turn per a rehnown to be produced by such influen ta ndividual culta ators is therefore no guide to what could be fairly expe cted on the remaining licids is normal cultnators case If the number of saterin, given to prody 19 8 per month at inter als of 10 days the quantity of water needed on the freld for each wec of pailey an a month of no rainfal} 29 30 000 c it in the of the worst car the storage tank must prorade 60 000 c ít of water on a field per a re of crop Actually the storare corresponding to these quantit es l! GO 000 c(t on fiekl per a se af padly crisp has to be 80 000 in the case of pctes selopies and 900 000 c It per acre of paddy crop in the ca c of very large schemes These quantitie of water if avetlable will be able to add about 3 maunds per acr Agen only about half the quantity can le attributed as resultin, from strigs tron the rest being due to manures 1 The normal greld per acre of rice (average for the State) as ascertained By random sampling method Osten varcs from 7 maunds per acre in UP tain Valras do dire t date for additional out turn per acre for an irriga ted crop of ricc oier that of an unirrigated crop are available sight in expecting a total of 3 maunds of additional tice grain per acre il storage and carrying capacity are got only 8 mounds out of the e could be allocated to irrigat on end maunds to manures It will be interesting to compare these figures with the additional gr un (rice) per acre expected as a result of irriga tion in the Fire I ear Plan Vinor Irrigation }} orks Bombay (New works) (Repurs to old works) 8 maunds 5 ·Vajor Irni alion llorks Bhakra (Punjab), Hırakund (Orissa) Maj urahshi (Bengal) Belan (UP) Madhya Pradesh Saurashtra 56 maunds 18 (Rabu) 1 5 J 17 It is obvious that th expectation of the Governm nts concerned in the case of the mi or irrigation projec s 11 Drakud Mayura! 11 and projects in Saurashtra are excessive But the expectations of Bhakra of obtaining 56 maunds of additional rice (grain) per here beats all the other States The two important reasons why the tigures of estimated dditional out-turn per acre of so many stntc ( cren ex ludin Blahra) are so unduly high appear to be that they have ither taken the produce provided by a few ambitious and capable cultivators ( krishi Pandits ) as possible in the case of all the culto ators and / or that they huc taken thc I! ures of to al produce per acre as additional produc It is al o possible that they have attributed the extra produce duc jointly to manures and irrigation to irrigation only lle have consider d so fır the question of additional | roduce of irrigated rice It would be worth while scru inizsng destons of irri, ation tanks with jowar as an irrigated crop catered by minor or major irrigation tanks in lo v rainfall tracts It is usu I in such de igas to calculat the fi, urc of are: irricable per m c ft of d si nests or at anything between 10 to 15 acres inclusive of los es by es aporatio 1 and still assume that manures would be applied with th expectat on of increasin, the eld per acre of irrigated crop by 8 muunds o mor Thcs huh exp c ations can nei er be realized in practice Jowar the most commonly irrinted mill t cr p m lon rainful] tra ts needs about 1 waterm, every month if no run is n alat ic i e in a ye r of no rainfall * waterings hase to be supplied to it from th tank in a year of 2 erage rainfall This is cquiral nt to " 000 c It of uiter on fiel i per „cre of jowar It 18 well known that losses in transit in such tracts ar very hi h and concentration of uffiration low Th quantity of water I qur d per cr at the head of a canal to allow "O voo c ft per acre on the field is about 30 000 in a small scheme and about 66 000 c ft in a medium sized scheme owing to los concentration of irrigation The latter is equ valent to 13 per m cft avera e rear Data coll ted oser a periodo 20 continuous yeurs however show that the aserige figure of irrigatrd area of the order of only 4 acres per m ( ft It can be shown that only 4 to 6 acres per mc ft of designeel Capacity could be th actual aserige area irrigated over a period of 10 years f 15 acres per mc ft could be irrigated in a year of sserage rainfall scre in an ·(38) Regardleag Incore ctd sins of chanar s lur t Dc th cffect 15 very serious in the case of latt schemes( m jor sitg tun) 11 result is that area of water resoulable in the storagr Ihr channel is not abic to convey the full quantity need lt, the fields at the tim whnt is est siinn o mandie dursam periods whrn the rain fail it is worth noting that there is a correlation between (a) Dc or th: inch depth of water that could be guaranteed on a field in the worst rotation even when the storage required is availabe (0} the extent to wluch the use of manures ( particular y of chemical manures the ammonus ; sulphatc ) possible and (c) the audit one! out turn of grains per aere and the portion out of that attrs utal le separately to (?) irrigation and (-) matutes do statistical data about additional yaekis from arent arsigated by canzi, appear to have been co lected in attempt 1226 been made in the following tahe to represent the probable correlaties for the crop of paild Aproximate Figure of additional grann allocable to Corresponding duty for purposes Correspondi ! inch depth os capacity at cadal field per be die Dc) watersag at 10 day intervals Acres per cu ec Sut of canzi Total additional our turn of rice A 20e of supply of Irrigatron water durt g periods of failure of rains Irriga trog Maques fachs Small Meds Large um Pounds Pounds per per acre acre Nasads per acre 2 s 5 7 8 Liberal $ 40 30 2+ 30 000 12 Good 3 43 81 30 301) 500 10 Fairly Good * 38 200 8 Not good 2 00 48 0 15 250 5 Losaficient 80 48 150 Very madequate met 120 87 00 100 2) It will be seen from the abne table that & total additional produce of 12 maunds of rice per acre is possible only if the Dt 13 such as could provide ·4 waterings on the field eseri 10 days with B waterings only about 10 maunds extra should be possible th duty (Du) corresponding to that must be 30 for large canal systems like the vaj ural sh 30 for medium sized canals like th Belan and about 43 for small can's No sane cultı ator will dare use chemical manures if there is no guarante of obtulaing the full dose of nater during periods of insufficient runfall As udy of figures of runfall at Bardwan Drug and Tano e will show that the occasions when rains fail for ve month are many but th re are also many ca es when runs were ne lıgıbly small for contmu usmmnths In fact rain was very meagre for 3 continujus months in certain cas s This hows that if cultivators are to be expected to use chemical manues not only must the quan tity stored be sufficient but the carrying capacity must also be high The following table shows figures of dut, with whi h channels of certain inportant Canals were de ined and those with which they shoud has e been desimed to allow the additional quantities of gra n expected per acre to be produced Duty provided for car ying capacity (DC) Nam of irrigation system Additional out fura Dc desirable at of grains expected Canal head of the 10 the design out tura expected attributable to in the project is Itigation to be realised from Maunds per acre At dist ibu tary head At Canal head every ft ld 3 Damodar Durgapur Left Bank canal Right Bank canal 90 90 8 to 19 30 (1407 13 100 80 86 Sirakund Mayurakshi Belan 22 5 25 30 35 (3) Additional Produce by Irrigation and Magures Limitations in the case of Normal Cultivators The Planning Commı sion Lelieve that what is needed for large scale production is a programme of public iniestment which will give to the cultura tior the wter the poner the seeds and the manures he needs so that he will do the needſul and supply the targeted addit onal produce These results are not honey r likely to accrue so lon, as me depend upon the existing individualistic and chaotic system of a riculture The conmission appear to have lost sight of the necessity of tast changes neces ary in the socio economic outlook and it is obvious that the addit onal production expected cannot be availahle for ses eral years after the ·construction of irrigation selemes The 1 anners on the other hand expect farge quantities of produce to be available alınst inm diately after the construction And in some cases eren prior to thin completion of irrigation works The industrialists on the oth r land hasc a definitek (onimercnl 11$ They are no doubt efficient but hauc a predominantly profiteering molire and go in for money crops onls llad thes industrialists been suc esful in manufacturing the rolust after pro essing of these mouey crops so as to sell the same at economic rates it would me b en possible to crport it but from the trend of prices of su h processat prullule like sugr its found that the rates are high and exports are therefore not an easy matter In skort the real troul le is that o ito' the tnv agen res which are available the normal cultivator 35 *anting in incentive and has disadvantages the small holdings sint of capital ttc while the industrialist has malaly a prohteering motrie Bolitical and social influence can no doubt be brought to bear upon both and they can be mad to work so as to prolu e what the country needs That however will need time, decades of year Spectacular results cannot thefore be obtainrd within a short p rood of file or ten cars The obsers ince of other agricultural o crations is n the case of a majority of cultı ators o land in Indit either wanting or only lalf herted It is often said that In Inclia riculture is not a bussmess it is only a past timc Officers of Agricultural Department of a certsia state have reported after colle ting a tual statisti al data that only a small part of the additional produce possible by adopting improved system of agriculture as av kulable with the normal cnltı ator ss the agency Not infrequenth therefore one hears of cases of ordinars cultivatora hon, incurred a loss by using manur s What is most important from the point of vies of the Pian is that only a sma}} fraction of the sumptuou additional produce expected to fill the grantries of the country as likely to be 71 asla ble by 1956 The rate at wlach ammonium sulphate was being sold at District towns was ascertamed to be about its 430 per ton One ton of ammonium sulphate is capable it has tcen ascertained of producing 13 tons of rice grain if used methodically lhe out turn will lowever be smaller say only a little over Il tons of grain in the case of an average cultivator in the absence of other operations done properly and in the absence of t mely and assured supply of irrigation and g nerally speaking in the absence of incentne The 11 tons of rice thus proxluced mr fetch about Rs 480 or so Deducing expenses the norinal cultivator stands to gaia a profit of Rs " per ton of sanurc af used After taking into cynsideratios exp nditure on cart 13 and labour The arerage cultivator with the lands under the command of canals does not strne towards inten ne production but is satisfied by basing about ho, extra over his land by making use of irrigation water from large duty canals so as to satisfy requirement of bis ond family and of the labour employed by hını In fact it is tej orted that irrigation allons him to be careless regardmg burds ·(41) around his rice fields and other agricultural operations It is true that a small number of enthusiastic and capable coltivators in rigated tracts do desire to have a moru copious and timely supply of urigation rater ( low duty canals ) so as to produce more But the number of such cultuators is small Mo general conclusion must therefore be drawn from the out turn ar zilable on their farms Assuming the normal yield of rice from unirrigated lands to be of the order of 20 maunds it will be reasonable to expect in the case of rice producing tract an additional out turn as a result of irrigation and manures as shown in the following Table Additional produce of rice per acre cultivated by Ordinary cultivators Cultivators fich incentive and menas Average for all cultivators Duty for To be att ibuted to To be attributed to carryi g capacity Irriga Manu t res only only Total Irro tion only Manu res only Total Irrio tron only Manu re only Total Maunds Maunds Maunds Maunds Maunds Maunds Maunds Maunds Munds Low 21 5 5 5 10 .6 26 Medium 14 34 3 3 18 19 hot 37 > 2 3 10 10 1 High 20 Figures for many states in the five year plan show that they expect an addition of 8 to 12 maunds of grain per acre by ustigation Even the figures for some states which show smaller additional produce per acre are on the Jurger side particularly then it is borne in mind that the additional resulting from manures has been calculated separately under manures (4) Discharging Capacity required by canals AT/DC Method The term A I DI 1 short form of area irrigated per day cuscc It needs to be repeated t; at it is not enough to have ample storage in the reservoir It is al o equally cssential to hasc a certain minimum discharging capacity to allow water from the reservoir to be conse; ed to the fields through the mun canal the distributory the outlet and the field channel ete Duty for di clar,ing capacity can be expressed by the following equation De = (1 1/DC) interval of time permissibic between two consecutive waterings ·(42) 8 Thus considering the crop of paddy and assumnın, that he were designing for an inch depth of 3 at each watering the following would be the typical figures of A IDC for a command of mediocre size At Ireld At Distributory IIerd At Canal Head 30 If 10 days are found to be the suitable and permissible intcri al betw cen two consecutive waterings( during periods when the rains fail ) the duty at the three points mentioned abole will be as under Duty (De) At lielu * 10 = 80 At Distributory lead 5 x 1045 At Canal IIoad x 10 = 30 It is worth remembering that a cusec day is cqual to about 'acre inches Depending upon the interval at wiuch different crops requue such 3 depth waterings the Dc will vary as the A I/DC at any given point Depending upon the sufficiency or otherwise of discharging capacity o canal may fall under one of the following categories 8 3 Category Number Deschargiag capacity Dc assumed in design Nature of utility of a casal 3 Very insuficient High Mere protection 3 Iosufficient Mediocre Limited increase in production 3 Sufficient Low Consideroble increase in pro duction permitting the use of bull.s and limited dosage of chemical manures Abundant Iery small Very large increase in produc tion with large scale use of chemical and of bulky manures In designs where there is only one main crop to be catered for by a canal the calculations for discharging capacity are very simple Fut canals hive only one crop In major irrigation canals the the Air and the Tungabhur there is a large vanety of ciops each with it onn pecularities the types of main crops may be 10 to 20 Calculations in such cases are made for cich season and for ·(43) t period in the season when peab loads are expected to occur The figure of / DC at the head of a canal has to be assumed depending upon many tors the most important being the extent of area under command and concentration of irrigation Tigures obtained on a similar existing canal therefore the best gulde Calculations by the AI / D C method for the Nira Canals show that an ID C equal to 3 and a maximum of 35 is suitable for that system The UC ( area under command of the Hyderabad side of the Tungabhadra lal is nearly twice that of the Nora Canals system As such AI/DC ained will be much smaller But even assuming the same figures as for Nira culations show that the Tungabhadra (Hyderabad) should have a discharging bacity of 6000 cusecs as a minim im and one of 7000 cu ecs as desirable le designed capacity of 31 O cusecs only may be compared with that ure The fact that the channel may not actually be able to carry more than boo cusecs (though designed for 8 150) should be noted in this context It is doubt possible to run the administration with 3150 cusecs so as to afford btection But large production is our goal and 6 000 cusecs are essential la Jo PART 4 (1) Distribution of Irrigation Benefits The construction of the various irrigation schemes included in the plan expected to resnlt in the provision of irrigation facilities to the agriculturists be those parts of the country where those schemes are located The Indirect enefits the form of a larger output and trade greater employment pportunities a larger flow of income to the public exchequer etc are similarly xpected to be shared in common by the rest of the community But the extent which these benefits are secured would depend upon a host of onsiderations in ludin' the optimum use of irrigation facilities the crop patterns Adopted and implemented the adequancy of water rates and betterınent charges etc It is often snd that sin e the irri,ntion facilities are created as a result of public intestin at k is mly fzır that thes facilit es se distributed equitably amongst the cultivator in th commanded treas le rould like to indic te in this connection e rt ung ner Jersed rations tí at ve suggested by the working of the exi tine reservoir is 101 y tems in the country in the Punjal and the allus ultricts of Itter ) radish tlic fai pu able topo, rapluc lay out cnobles the canals to command 1 eri Inr, prion of the country throu, luch 1 ben fut of urt101 vitr tre th rcfore more » dels disributed { thc luct that most of the large irrime on beographically secondl is works in the North and also in V dras (with tic ex eption of the one whichi lias a reservoir) Inne so far been of their type on large rivers the major part iter is as I le for season 3) crops The supply of of the supply of irri atin they pass irtit

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·(47) ptable though it may appeur to many that our agricultural indu try is in the lands of ignorant and not very enterprising agriculturists (3) Epilogue is expected that a large number of irrigation schemes now under tion would be completed by the end of 1935-b That the Multi purpose would require a good few years for their completion is quite cvident from of balance of expenditure after 1J05-56 and the progress Reports w Dot be surprised of work on a large number of other irrigation schemes gers on for some years after 1995 56 Be that as it may one thing appears the various governments in the country are now busy draning up gation projects for the second ye year Plan We would like to indicato connection a few general considerations is discovered that in the acceptance of scheme of des lopment for inclu 1 the plan political and reconal considerations play quite an important Apart from the competition among the states for he acceptance of their there is often a keen rivalry betwe n the various linguistic regions same state each trying to push on its on schemes and raid the and Central Treasuries to the detrement of other states. Regions in i public opinion is sufficientlcy vocal succeed in taking away a bigger slice public investments In this struggle the vested interests and their hirelings an important part Projects which would not ordinarily stand the test of are advertized as the best schemes in the world It is necessary and that the final dicision in regard to the choice of the schemes are left Planning Commission In conclusion we would like to invite attention to one more consideration me wider significance and importonce it is eminently necessary that the c of schemes is made to depend also upon availability of resources and the of economic development of the country It is trite to say that India is f the poorest countries on the globe and that the living standards of her e are miserably low It is also generally conceded that we cannot afford ve economic progress to be solely determined by private enterprise and markets I lanning of economic growth is instable and it has come to stay lanning the economic growth of a country it is essential to select inues of production whih tre appropriate to that country Though natural resources are Irrge and varied they are not copious relatively le size of our popu ation The only productive resource which sve possess undance is unskilled labour Our capital resources on wluch productivity of and labour depends are extremely limited in countries like the United of America the Unital hudom etc where labour 19 Cerce and capital ely more abundant it is customary to adopt a techisique which is more -using and therefore more productie It is not surgested that it would Le possible at all to adopt superior techniques et en in our own country What sized here is thnt the cost of economic devlopment in terms of human ·(46) in thc Pain would be made by the public This means in other words that the productose chciency of public investment would be largely determined by the behaviour of independent cultivators If the decisions of the cultivators are to be determined by what is described as the impersonal arbitrament of markets there is then ciery danger of the crop pattern lad down in the Plan being distortex The Commission expect additional food outpnt of the order of 1 1 million tms from major and minor ir ation words in million tons from land reclamation and des clopment i million tons from fertilszts and manures and og million tons from improved seeds The Commission late allo cd 500 000 tons to be deducted from the gross target on account of possible diversion to commercial crops This incidentally shows that the Commission themselves are not que certain about their own calculations Is there any guarantee that the dr ersion to commerelul crops would in fact be limtied to 500 000 tans only ? If past experience is any furde it tends to shos that with the introduction of irrigation facilitics manures the tendeney to grow more of commercial crops is strengthened and farming, for home consumption is replaced by farraing for markets 720 Government of Bombay bad made efforts during the lar and early post wat period to divert irrigated lands on the Deccan Canals from commercial to but found that those efforts wcre dcrcated at es cry stage particularly by substantial cultivators Te very much doubt the efficiency of government regulations to o condition the movements of agricultural prices that a pre determined pattern of crops is realized in practice prot ssion of futures and food crops one channel In the case of major irrigation works in particular it would be necessary to lay down a pattern of crops Here the rule of one crop may perhaps be found more convenient and practicable for the realization of a given crop pattern This would naturally ini ole some measure of control over production The solution of the probl m would be for the State to take over all the lands in the commanded areas under its on nership and cultivation immediately before or efter the constriction of irigation works But this is merely a counsel of perfection A practic iblc plan perhaps would be to organrze the cultivators of irrigable lands on a co-operatseb 5) for the purpose of produ tion It would then be easice for the government to influence the prxluction dec sions of these c operative societses and use them as comienic at agencies for the proper utilization of irrigation and other fucilities It needs to be emphasız d that the state cannot afford to pt with ſoldal hands and merely watch hor addition facilities supplied at pulloc cost are being utilized by the cultrators If considnrations of expediency rule out the use of the apparatus of control then it would be merely academic to fix patterns of crops and targets of output The necessity of some sort of control over the use of facilities is also underlined by the fact unpalatable and ·le table though it may appear to many that our agricultural indu try 15 In the hands of ignorant and not very enterprising agriculturists (3) Epilogue is expected that a large number of irrigation schemes now under ction would be completed by the end of 1953–6 That the Multi purpose swould require a good few years for their completion is quite evident from res of balance of expenditure after 1355-56 and the progress Reports ed not be surprised of work on a large number of other irrigation schemes rers on for some vears after 1955 56 Be that as it may one thing appears hat the various governments in the country are now busy drawing up rigation projects for the second Five year Plan We would like to indicate connection a few general considerations t is discovered that in the acceptance of schemes of devlopment for inclu h the plan political and re,ional considerations play quite an important Apart from the competition among the states for he acceptance of their les there is often a keen rivalry betwe n the various linguistic regions same state each trying to push on its own schemes and raid the and Central Treasuries to the detrement of other states Regions in public opinion is sufficientlcy vocal succeed in taking away a bigger slice public investments In this struggle the vested interests and their hurelings an important part Projects which would not ordinarly stand the test of iny are advertized as th best schemes in the world It is necessary and able that the final decision in regard to the choice of the schemes are left he Planning Commission In conclusion we would be to invite attention to one more consideration me wider significance and importance It is eminently necessary that the pe of schemes is made to depend also upon availability of resources and the of eronomic development of the country It is trite to say that India is of the poorest countries on the globe and that the living standards of her le are miserably lo It is also generally conceded that we cannot afford future economic progress to be solely det rmined by private enterprise and markets Planning of economic growth is invitable and it has come to stay planning the economic growth of a country it is essential to select xues of production which are appropriate to that country Though natural resources are large and varied they are not copious relatively he size of our popu ation The only productive resource which we possess bundance is unskilled labour Our capital resources on which productivity of and labour depends are extremely limited In countries like the United is of America the United Kindom etc where labour is carce and expital ively more abund int it is customary to adopt a techrique which is more al-using and therefore more productive It is not suggested that it would be possible at all to adopt superior techniques even in our own country What prsized here is that the cost of economic des lopment in terms of human ·suffering would be mach higher The adoption of up todate and elaborate plants and other labour saving devices spould undoubteily give us a larger flow of national income but it would also succeed in pushing tabour out of employment The short-term disturbances created in the social political and economical structure would be far more serious than can be dismissed with a shrug of shoulder In a totalitarian state it may be possible to suppress the distrubance and impose sacrifices by regimentation and dictation But in the community which aspires to preser e its democratic way of life these disturbances would create grase problems and imperil existance of the goverment I or these reasons therefore the choice of appropriate production techniques ceases to be a purely économic problem It constitutes a political issue also Even a superficial survey of the schemes included in the First Fre lear Plan would show that these aspects of the problems particularly the overall limitataion of resources were not given due consideration While presenting the Report of the Planning Commission to Parliament in December 19,2 the Prime Minister made an honest reference to this aspect of the problem lle odmitted that money would be tied up for a long period and there would be no immediate increase in the current les el of productio i The estimates of expenditure on these projects have ben continuously revised upward, ever since these projects were drawn up and one does not h now for certain how much more capital these projects are likely to absorb and also whether the benefit would be proportionate to the investment effort There is no doubt that while preparing the river valley schemes we were very much influenced by the TI A model The over-zealou engineers in our country have finally succeeded in committing the government to the acceptance and execution of the schemes When the over solicitous experts overshoot then mark the consequences to the society are not always congenial At a certain stage in the economic des elopment of a country such gigantic schemes become both feasible and desirable In this sease such schemes must be considered as the consequences and not the causes of economic development A poverty stricken country like India lacking in capital and skilled labour resources and always threatened with an explosion of human fertility should not start its economic progress with such costly schemes At some future stage of our economic growth these projects would become practicable even in our own country Our criticism may appear pointless for the reason that work on thesc projects is already'ın progress It is not suggested that the work of construction op the projects shold be abandoned at this stage because they are costly Our criticism 18 intended to avert the repetition of old blunders We ought to be able to undertake such schemes as would not involve inordinate investment of capital and which would yield results in the not too distant a future

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