Impact Evaluation Of Mini Irrigation Projects Executed By The ITDAs

Abstract

Water is the basic input for agriculture. Artificial application of water to land for the purpose of agricultural production is called irrigation. Effective irrigation influences the entire growth process from seedbed preparation, germination, root growth, nutrient utilisation, to plant growth and regrowth, yield and quality. Agriculture is the mainstay of the tribal people of Orissa. It is characterized by low productivity for lack of adequate irrigation facility for which the tribal farmers resort to rainfed farming subject to the vagaries of nature. Under the Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) strategy, after grounding of ITDAs in TSP areas, considerable emphasis has been given to raise the irrigation potential of the area to increase productivity of land. Since irrigation constitute a critical infrastructure for income generation, a large number of mini irrigation projects have been constructed in tribal areas incurring sizable amount of expenditure to provide assured irrigation facility. Under this backdrop, it is felt imperative to conduct an impact evaluation study of the mini irrigation projects in selected ITDA areas located within the TSP area of the State. Accordingly the study was conducted in four selected ITDA areas namely; Nilagiri, Bonai, Paralakhemundi and Thuamul Rampur during 2007 - 2008. In these areas, 41 mini irrigation projects of different kinds such as, Water Harvesting Structures (WHS), Diversion Weirs, Cross Bunds, Weir Dams, River Lifts, Shallow Tube Wells, Dug Wells etc executed by these 4 ITDAs in 39 villages covering 237 tribal beneficiaries coming under 10 blocks were taken into purview of the study. The projects were selected from their inception to 2006-07. The primary objectives of the study were to assess the impact of the projects on the following aspects: 1.Enhancement of productivity of the land brought under irrigation. 2.The extent of increase in the input use. 3.The level of employment generation for both family labour and hired labour. 4.Increase in farm income of the beneficiaries. 5.Improvement in socio-economic status of the beneficiaries.