The Command Area Development Programme in India: A Policy Perspective

Abstract

"This paper traces the evolution of the Command Area Development Programme in India in the context of planned development. It examines processes both in the evolution of new policies, and their revision over time. The paper first summarises the development context in India, and the way in which early emphasis on on-farm development (OFD) resulted from the growing gap between the irrigation potential created in the postindependence boom in irrigation infrastructure, and the irrigation potential actually utilised. The unreliability of main system management, however, was seen to obviate initiatives below the outlet, and subsequent efforts were made to integrate the agriculture and irrigation departments in the CAD programme. The paper also examines how the CAD programmes themselves underwent policy revision on priorities and responsible agencies that reflected difficulties in their implementation and improved utilisation of irrigation potential. However, this paper suggests that the gap between potential and utilisation results as much from inherent water scarcity as from inefficient water use and inadequate management. It is argued that the continuing impasse can only be remedied through articulation of a comprehensive strategy of development which includes disparate fields previously thought to be unrelated to irrigated agriculture."