74 Ethics and Systems Thinking
- Farmers’ knowledge of main system management and water supplies, and
manager–farmer communications. - Incentives and disincentives for irrigation staff.
- The operation of the groundwater market.
None of these are examined in any depth in any of the three studies. Without more
insight into most or all of these, prescription for improving performance might
easily be wide of the mark.
MRP and HBP: Failure through Success
In kharif 1979 the consultants Water and Power Consultancy Services (WAPCOS)
conducted ambitious and inherently difficult research on two major canal irrigation
projects – the Mahanadi River Project (MRP) (CCA about 180,000ha) and the
Hasdeo Bango Project (HBP) (CCA about 41,000ha), both of which grew paddy in
kharif with protective irrigation. The objective of the research was to ascertain the
advantages, if any, of reducing chak size. Normal chak sizes ranged from 8ha to over
200ha. The experimental treatment reported was to subdivide trial chaks by con-
structing subminors down to 8ha subchaks, and then rotate the water supply between
the subchaks. Of 14 outlets selected, 3 became trials and 11 were controls. Measure-
ments reported included water supplied, rainfall, farmyard manure and chemical
fertilizers used, percentages of chaks and subchaks planted to high-yielding varieties
(HYVs) and transplanted, and yields at different locations in chaks and subchaks,
using crop-cutting. It was reported for WAPCOS (Chadha, 1980, p388) that these
field studies:
demonstrated dramatically the effect of delivering water through Government con-
structed channels up to smaller chaks (of 8ha in this case)... Our recommendations,
supported by field studies carried out as part of consultancy services are for 8ha subchaks
which means that the size of subchak was limited to 4 or 5 farmers, and length of water
course serving it is limited to 300m or so, which are much more manageable. It is a
matter of happiness that Govt. of India also accepted these findings and have issued new
guidelines on the subject.The adoption of these recommendations as government policy is confirmed by the
record of a conference held in April 1980 which reported the then Secretary of
Irrigation as saying:
The Government of India and the Planning Commission have requested the State Gov-
ernments to extend field channels to 5–8 hectare blocks, on the canal system. (Patel,
1981, p9)Let us examine the methods and evidence of the research on which, it would seem,
this policy decision was based. In doing this, the most favourable assumptions will