ABSTRACT

Agricultural production in areas far from water resources and during dry seasons has been made possible by extensive irrigation development. Groundwater irrigation has been the dominant mode of irrigation in India and has been used extensively in China, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Historical accounts and archaeological findings approximate the age of the earliest irrigated rice terraces in the country at 2,000 years old. In the late 1990s, the modernisation of the agriculture sector was accorded top priority by the government in an effort to provide enduring solutions to the twin problem of food insecurity and rural poverty. Prof. Wilfredo P. David presented a number of issues and constraints to sustainable irrigation development in the country, which included, among others, the absence of significant irrigation research and development efforts and the fragmentation of irrigation development activities. Various performance assessment methodologies and performance indicators have been developed.