Irrigation potential in Bangaru Telangana

“….Progress in development has to be preceded, accompanied, and followed by progress in infrastructure if we are to fulfill our declared objectives of generating a self-accelerating process of economic development”

Dr. V.K.R.V. Rao

Infrastructure is one of the major pre-requisite of economic growth as it creates production capacity, provides employment opportunities, reduces transaction costs, and improves the standard of livings. Infrastructure is an umbrella term consisting of economic infrastructure and social infrastructure. While economic infrastructure consists of roads, railways, ports, airports, irrigation, power plants, telecommunications etc. social infrastructure comprises of schools, universities, hospitals, dispensaries etc. Responsibility for some of these infrastructure facilities falls in State Government domain and some in Central Government domain.

Relationship between Infrastructure and Poverty

Key infrastructure sectors for State at the present juncture of development are irrigation, power, and roads. The Government has accorded highest priority to increase irrigation facilities and to provide uninterrupted power supply for all consumers. In order to augment irrigation infrastructure in the State, the government initiated several measures such as undertaking new irrigation projects with a proper redesign to suit States irrigation requirements and ‘Mission Kakatiya’ a flagship program for reviving the tank irrigation in Telangana.

Irrigation in Telangana

Irrigation remains the backbone of the agricultural development as it increases crop productivity and reduces the risk of crop failure. Development of irrigation infrastructure is important in Telangana since rainfall occurs only for three to four months and irrigation is the only source during the rest of the year.

Extent of Un-irrigated Area in Telangana

Of the total 43.77 lakh hectares net sown area in Telangana in 2014-15, around 40 percent was irrigated implying a large part of agriculture is rainfed. Only three districts i.e., Karimnagar, Warangal, and Nizamabad have irrigated agriculture of more than 50 percent, revealing the dire need for an increase in irrigation infrastructure in the State (see Figure and Table ).

Table: District-wise Net Sown Area and Net Irrigated Area in 2014-15

Sl No	Districts	Net Sown Area (NSA) in 000 hectares		Total NSA (in 000 hectares)	Percentage of Unirrigated Area
		Of Which, Net Area Irrigated	Of Which, Unirrigated Area
1	Adilabad	81	476	557	85.46
2	Nizamabad	165	125	290	43.1
3	Karimnagar	315	196	511	38.36
4	Medak	144	329	473	69.56
6	Rangareddy	64	166	230	72.17
7	Mahabubnagar	249	617	866	71.25
8	Nalgonda	254	329	583	56.43
9	Warangal	276	185	461	40.13
10	Khammam	178	228	406	56.16
Total		1726	2651	4377	60.57

Source: Agricultural Statistical At a Glance of Telangana-2014-15, DES.

Publicly Funded and Privately Funded Irrigation Sources: The sources of irrigation have been classified into two categories (i) privately funded comprising of tube wells and dug wells (ii) publicly funded comprising of canals, tanks, and others sources. District-wise analysis reveals that Telangana’s irrigation sector is dominated by privately funded irrigation sources i.e., well. About 75 percent of the total net irrigation area in the State is well irrigated as against the al-India average of 62 percent (Figure 6.2).This indicates that irrigation needs of Telangana State were utterly neglected in combined state of Andhra Pradesh.

Rangareddy has the highest percentage of well-irrigated area (95 percent) in the State followed by Medak, and Karimnagar districts. Khammam has highest public funded irrigation infrastructure (57percent) followed by Nalgonda (see Figure 6.2). It is also clear from Table 6.1 and Figure 6.2 that districts with less irrigated area have a higher dependency on publicly funded irrigation sources, indicating the necessity to increase public funded irrigation facilities in the State.

Irrigation policy of the combined State of A.P ignored Telangana’s requirements on three fronts:

(i) neglect of tank irrigation, leading to the destruction of age-old water conservation systems,

(ii) lesser financial allocation leading to non/partial completion of irrigation projects,

(iii) designing of irrigation projects in such a way that gives a lesser share to Telangana in river waters.
Addressing these issues, the Telangana Government took up three new initiatives

(i) Mission Kakatiya for revival of tank irrigation in the State,

(ii) redesign of irrigation projects to suit Telangana’s needs and

(iii) a substantial increase in budgetary allocation to irrigation sector during 2014-15 and 2015-16.

G.Rajendera Kumar