Agricultural Water Resources Management in India

Abstract

Agriculture still forms the backbone of India's economy, accounting for almost half of the national income and providing employment to about twothirds of the work force. Accordingly, the greatest use of water resources has been for agricultural development, which would have benefited considerably by improvements in the management of water resources. Some of the challenges in agricultural development are described, e.g., delivery of water for irrigation, rising water tables, water‐logging and severely impeded drainage, increasing soil salinity, soil conservation practices, traditional irrigation practices, size of land holdings, limited research and agricultural extension work, marketing problems, unavailability of modern technology to Indian farmers on economically attractive terms, etc. Many of these considerations are shown by examples from various projects.