ABSTRACT
A high incidence of technical difficulties will result in shortened project life and lowered productivity, dramatically reducing the actual benefits farmers will receive. The persistence of such difficulties within schemes established under donor financing is at the same time puzzling and especially unfortunate. The technology, one is told, can be applied universally. Successful irrigation in places like Israel, Egypt, Morocco, and South Africa indicates that adverse field conditions do not constitute a major obstacle to employment of even quite sophisticated irrigation technologies. The potential advantages of remote sensing technologies for assessment of water resources are wellknown. Water is unique, in that it is near the extremes in its thermal and dielectric properties. Compensatory techniques were developed, of course, but on the balance this "miracle" technology raised more problems than it resolved. Carter describes in some detail the adaptation of Indian technology for low-cost fadama drilling, using three variations of jetted or "washbore" technique, as well as small, trailer-mounted drilling rigs.
