Sustainable Agriculture and Food: Four volume set (Earthscan Reference Collections)

Learning and Mislearning 71

agriculture, and a sociologist. They noted that the World Bank-assisted programme
in the command of Mahi-Kadana was one of the first few attempts to implement
the command area development approach.
Their study was an attempt at gaining an in-depth understanding of the inte-
grated area development approach in the area. The specific objectives were to study
the planning of the integrated area development programme, to understand the
implementation processes, and to assess the farmer’s perception of the programme,
his needs and receptivity (Asopa and Tripathi, 1978, p12).^1 There was no require-
ment to produce a plan. The method included study of documents, interviews
with knowledgeable people and a survey of 50 farmers to know their reactions to
the philosophy of the programme, its implementation and its usefulness in increas-
ing agricultural production.
Asopa and Tripathi wrote a 112-page report which was ahead of its time in the
stress it laid on farmers’ participation in decision making for water scheduling,
rotation periods and other aspects of water management They argued that ‘the
major lacuna continues to be either limited or erratic availability of water’. As long
as that continued, ‘no amount of administrative innovativeness, support or vigi-
lance would promote irrigated agriculture’. They proposed water cooperatives
which would distribute water and ultimately become bulk purchasers of water
(Asopa and Tripathi, 1978, pp103–109). This was, then, a study which set out to
examine Command Area Development and farmers’ views, and found its attention
directed by the farmers towards the main system and water scheduling and deliv-
ery.
The second study, Resource Analysis and Plan for Efficient Water Management:
A Case Study on Mahi Right Bank Canal Command Area, Gujarat (WTC, 1983)
was carried out by some 16 scientists of the Water Technology Centre (WTC),
Delhi, including the disciplines of agricultural engineering, hydrology, agronomy,
biometrics, statistics, soil physics, water conservation engineering, soil science, cli-
matology and agricultural economics. The report (WTC, 1978, p7) states that:

The broad objectives of this programme include the resource analysis of the project area

and development of guidelines for efficient land use and water management in the

MRBC command area. The studies included the collection, compilation, analysis and

interpretation of all available data and information on the irrigation project.

Secondary data were collected from official sources, and primary data were col-
lected on soils.
The 360-page report reflects the disciplines of those who took part. The main
chapters, after an introduction, are:

• Climate.


• Soils.


• Irrigation.


• Drainage.