Rehabilitation of canal irrigation schemes in India: a qualitative analysis

Abstract

The article describes a brief history of canal irrigation development and rehabilitation measures taken up in the past. The processes leading to deterioration in the condition of canal irrigation systems necessitating rehabilitation have been described. Based on a survey of several irrigation commands in different agro-climatic zones, the problems in aged irrigation projects are presented. The purpose is to identify the technical and non-technical factors limiting the performance of canal irrigation systems. Regarding rehabilitation of canal irrigation systems, several policy issues have been raised and discussed. The importance of the raised issues in canal rehabilitation and solutions have also been presented in this paper