A Comparative Study of Irrigation Systems in Japan and India ; Peasants' Joint Management or State Management?

在本项目的最后一年，在三名印度对应学者的协助下，对大型灌溉系统指挥区内最低一级的灌溉做法进行了实地调查。第一个调查点是在北方邦密鲁特区的一个村庄，该村庄隶属于恒河运河，这是印度最大的运河系统之一。这里的主要重点是在北方邦灌溉部门的osrabandi制度下，有关农民普遍采用的用水实际做法。第二次调查是在印度西部古吉拉特邦的Ukai-Kakrapad项目区进行的。在这方面，重点放在八个水利用协会的活动上，目的是探讨农民参与灌溉系统的维护和控制以及成员农民之间的水分配的程度和类型。第三个案例研究是在马哈拉施特拉邦进行的，目的与古吉拉特邦相同。所有的调查数据还没有被处理，在这个项目进展的阶段，还不能对印度目前灌溉系统的优点和缺点做出任何明确的陈述。有一点可以指出，这是印度灌溉系统的一个巨大缺陷，那就是在邦政府一级，灌溉和农业生产的职能是分开的。灌溉部门的责任止于从大型运河系统的小支流或分流支流出发的出水口，向其管辖的农民提供水。为了弥补这一缺陷，自1974-75年以来，指挥区发展计划作为中央资助的计划被引入，中央政府提供50%的补贴。

In the final year of this project the field surveys were conducted with the assistance of the three Indian counterpart scholars about the irrigation practices at the lowest level in the command area of large irrigation systems. The first survey spot was in a village in Meerut district, Uttar Pradesh, which comes under the command of the Ganga Canal, one of the largest canal systems in India. Here the main focus was placed on the actual practices of water utilization prevalent among the farmers concerned under the osrabandi system of the Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department. The second survey was conducted in the Ukai-Kakrapad Project area in Gujarat State, Western India. In this area the emphasis was laid on the activities of eight water utilization associations with the aim of exploring the degree and types of farmers' participation in the maintenance and control of an irrigation system and also in the water distribution among the member-farmers. The third case study was done in Maharashtra State with the same purpose as in the case of Gujarat. All the survey data have not been yet processed and at this stage of the progress of this project any definite statement about the merits and demerits of the present irrigation systems in India can not be made.One point can be pointed out as a great defect of the Indian irrigation system that is the separation of the functions of irrigation and agricultural production at the level of a state government. The irrigatin department's responsibillity ends at an outlet which takes off from a minor or distributary of a large canal system to provide water to the farmers in its command. To remedy this defect since 1974-75 the command area development program has been introduced as a centrally sponsored scheme with fifty percent subsidy from the central government.