Irrigation Anjan Ash Iim Shillong

Ignite - Irrigation By Anjan Kumar Ash IIM-Shillong

• It Takes … – 10 liters of water to make a sheet of PAPER – 80 liters of water per dollar of INDUSTRIAL PRODUCT – 120 liters of water to make one glass of WINE – 1300 liters of water to make one kilogram of WHEAT • Municipalities commonly lose as much as 50% of their water supply through leaky infrastructure • Every year global agricultural wastes an estimated 60 percent of the 2500 trillion liters it uses

Thus let us come out of the Myopic View of managing Irrigation only: The cheap commodity WATER itself is in danger – Lets manage that keeping IRRIGATIN as the focal point

From Irrigation to Water Management • It is said – The Third World War would be fought for water • When we say Water, instead of Irrigation, we can relate to the need of preserve and maintain it • Thus DIRECT stakeholders of WATER are much more in number (in fact equal to world’s population) than that of IRRIGATION • Thus we should substitute “Irrigation” with the phrase “Water Management” and keep Irrigation as a major part of this • The model proposed here will invite each and every one of us to take care of the problems

Proposed Model: Participatory Approach • Equity and security in access and rights to water resources matter for larger impacts • Besides irrigation, this model will also give solution to Drinking-water Scarcity and ensure supply of fresh water to household – this will invite community participation in the whole process • Indirect benefits(employment, wages, prices, consumption, food security, incomes, benefits from multiple uses of water,) of irrigation at the local and broader economy level can be much larger than the direct crop productivity benefits of irrigation

Participatory Model: Stakeholders Already Involved Farmers

We have four stakeholders for this model :

Community

Participatory Model

Government

•Farmers •Government •Corporate •Community

Corporate

We have to get them involved

Model: Brief • Government along with the business farm will develop the waterinfrastructure cum the irrigation facility • This public-private partner will ensure efficiency in the whole process • Promote differential irrigation service charging across systems and locations • Involve the farmers in irrigation Operation & Maintenance activities, monitoring and supervisory roles and in irrigation service charge assessment, collection and spending activities

Stakeholder: Farmers • Connect Them: How? – They are major stakeholder in the whole project & directly affected by irrigation facility – Initiate pay for use facility: this will ensure maintenance of the system in rural India

• Benefits: – Improve the maintenance of irrigation facilities and the irrigation service – Enhance the productivity of irrigated land and water – Promote a sprit of self-reliance among farmers

Stakeholder: Corporate • Attract corporate(having direct link with agricultural products like ITC or who are in the business of Water like Pepsi, Coca-Cola etc ) to invest in water management/irrigation • They will be responsible for – Managing irrigation for a particular area – Time-to-time technical and financial assistance for undertaking needsbased repair – Establishment of water resources information kiosks that will provide irrigation management recommendations – Media dissemination and information campaigns • In return, they can avail those agricultural product at a cheaper rate

Stakeholder: Government • Strengthening of the capacity of district governments to act as the focal point for development and management of irrigation and water resources •

Gradual introduction of irrigation service fees (a part of which will go to the Corporate managing that particular area)

• Benefit: – Relieve government of the financial burden of funding recurrent expenditures for irrigation as Corporate House can arrange fund – Decentralized management of irrigation systems on a sustainable basis

Stakeholder: Community • This model gives an incentive for community and households to participate in the system even though they are not directly related to agriculture • Incentives for Community Participation – Pure Drinking-Water – Fresh water Supply – Uninterrupted supply of water • To avail this facility, households have to pay minimum monthly charge – a part of this will go to government, a fraction will go to the corporate who developed water-system in that region and rest of the part will be used for maintenance