Impact of Irrigation on Agricultural Growth and Poverty Alleviation: Macro Level Analyses in India

Abstract

"Improved information and understanding of the scale of incremental benefit of irrigation and other factor inputs to agricultural growth and to poverty alleviation has large public policy implications on setting rural development policy. Analysis of data from 1970 to 1994 for fourteen major states of India shows that improvement in irrigation and rural literacy rate are the two most important factors for agricultural growth and rural poverty reduction in India. Extending access to irrigation to a large number of farmers and investing in human capital development are crucial to increasing agricultural productivity and reducing poverty in India."