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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Budget 2012: NGOs welcome idea of promoting private investment in irrigation

Budget 2012: NGOs welcome idea of promoting private investment in irrigation

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published Published on Mar 16, 2012   modified Modified on Mar 16, 2012
-The Economic Times

The NGOs and experts working in water sector have welcomed the idea of promoting private investment in irrigation sector. "There is need and large scope for participation of private sector in the irrigation sector. The success will however will depend upon how the details are worked out taking views of local people and NGOs into consideration," said Dr Madhav Chitale, former secretary, Ministry of Water Resources. 

The Finance Minister has proposed viability gap funding for the private sector for irrigation projects. He has also proposed to set up a company for minor irrigation projects. The farmers who are getting good returns from cash crops like grapes or bananas are also investing heavily for fertilisers and other inputs. "If more irrigation becomes available to farmers of crops like tur and cotton, where the yields can go up by 1.5 times to 2.5 times, the private participation can prove useful. But the details will have to be worked out after lot of local level discussions," said Mr Chitale. 

Mr Suresh Prabhu, who had chaired the Task Force for Interlinking of Rivers, also said that the private participation in irrigation needs to be worked out carefully. "SPV is a good idea but in itself will not serve the cause unless done with clear mandate, proper funding, transparent operation and right staffing. Involving Local Govts,NGOs,communities in this endeavours would ensure success with ownership of ideas coming through participation,"said Mr Prabhu. The need to boost investment in irrigation has been felt because there was no public investment in irrigation in the 1980's and 1990's. 

Farmers' leaders have expressed apprehension about private participation in irrigation. "We doubt that the private players will be interested to invest in irrigation for agriculture as agriculture is not a profitable business," said Raju Shetty, leader of Swabhimani Shetkari Sanagthana. 

The experts said that the FM should have invested more money into improving the efficiency of the existing irrigation projects. "Despite being the second largest irrigated country in the world ,the efficiency of our irrigation infrastructure is amongst the worst in the world,most of it operating at abysmally low level,some even at less than 20% .FM should have invested more money into improving efficiency of this as it's best option with least investments, with no social cost like displacement of people or no damage to environment. If we need to take food production to 500 million tonnes in next 20 years we need this," said Mr Prabhu from the World Water Forum in France.

The Economic Times, 16 March, 2012, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/agriculture/budget-2012-ngos-welcome-idea-of-promoting-private-investment-in-irrigation/articleshow/12292615.cms


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