Hyderabad: To realise the vision and dreams of the Hon’ble Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao to transform the state into Golden Telangana, the Government has initiated so many innovative programmes. One among them is the most prestigious programme, ‘Mission Kakatiya’. It is aimed at restoring all the 46,531 Minor Irrigation tanks in the state which provide irrigation to about 25 lakh acres of land. Mission Kakatiya is being implemented phase wise in five years, 20% of all the tanks each year.
The programme was launched on 12th March, 2015. Under the first phase, 8,022 tanks have been taken up for restoration and all the works are completed. Mission Kakatiya is now, one of the most popular and much appreciated programmes not only in other states of India but also outside the country.
The 1st phase of Mission Kakatiya is already showing the signs of yielding good results. To have a transparent impact assessment of the Mission Kakatiya by a third party, the Government has entrusted the task to M/s. NABCONS, a sister concern of the NABARD.
The consultants, M/s. NABCONS have selected 400 tanks of different sizes, taken up under phase I, from the four districts (old) of Adilabad, Karimnagar, Medak and Nalgonda are using the stratified random selection procedure. The districts are selected to cover all the four agro climatic zones in the state. Groundwater exploitation status has also been considered for stratification. Number of tanks in each of the four districts selected by the consultants for study are in proportion to the total number of tanks taken up under phase I.
The tanks have been selected by the consultants are the representative of all the tanks in the Telangana state.That, Initially the consultants have conducted the baseline survey on the selected tanks considering 2013-14 as the base year. Which is a good rainy year. The Primary data on the various identified parameters have been collected through the household surveys, That the focus group discussions of different tank water users and the secondary data from different departments of the government, Such as Irrigation and CAD, Agriculture, Groundwater, Planning, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries etc. That using well designed questionnaires. The Household data have been collected from the 30 randomly selected households from each tank command.
That, the consultants have collected alike data from the same tank villages, for the same sample size of household for the year 2016 – 17. The Comparison has been made between the data of the base year 2013 – 14 and data of the year 2016 – 17 to assess the impact of the Mission Kakatiya. The Study also has been done, comparing the data pertaining to the households under the tank ayacut and those taken as a control of the households which do not fall under the tank ayacut.
That, In addition to the data collected from the households, the village community and the departments, satellite data have also been collected exclusively for the 40 tanks to assess the water spread area of the tanks, the extent of the cropped area, the area irrigated and the cropping pattern.
The Findings of the impact assessment made by the consultants:
That there has been a decrease of 19.2% in the gap ayacut. In 2013-14, the gap ayacut was 42.4% whereas it is 23.2% in the year 2016-17, after implementation of the Mission Kakatiya phase I.
- That there is an increase in gross area irrigated under tank ayacut by 51.5% over the base year under the tanks renovated in Mission Kakatiya Phase –I. At this rate, it is estimated that the gross irrigated area 10.53 lakh, Acrs will increased in the state as an impact of Mission Kaktiya after all the phases.
- Irrigation intensity has been increased by 45.6% over the base year, This is mainly due to the improved water retention capacity in the tanks, post restoration works, by which water is available for the second crop also. In base year, the irrigation intensity was 88.4% and it is increased to 134.0% with implementation of Mission Kakatiya.
- Irrespective of the landholding size and the reach (about 90% are small and marginal farmers and 60% of the land falls in head reach), the benefits of Mission Kakatiya are reaching farmers with equity in distribution of tank water.
- Cropped areas:
- With the mere availability of water in the tanks, the area under paddy has substantially been increased from 49.2% in the base year to 62.1% in the assessment year. That, despite the fact that there was a good rainfall in the base year. That the increase is mostly due to the increased water storage and the preservation capacity in the tanks after the Mission Kakatiya and its impact is more important in Rabi 2016 – 17, with more area under paddy by 7.2% in Rabi over Kharif.
- The area under cotton has been decreased from 36.2% to 26.3% and the farmers preferred to grow the paddy instead of the cotton as adequate water is available in the tanks.
- That there is a slight decrease in the areas under other crops as the area under paddy has increased.
- The Crop Yields: Increase is witnessed in the yields of paddy, cotton and Jowar after the Mission Kakatiya Phase I over the base year. The increase is more significant in Rabi paddy (19.6%) and cotton (11.6%).
- The Tank silt application: The farmers are fetched with various benefits due to application of the tank silt in their farms, the major benefit being the important reduction in expenditure on fertilizers. The impact assessment survey shows a decrease in consumption of chemical fertilizers by 35 – 50%, which resulted in reduced expenditure on fertilizers by 27.6% over the base year. That the decrease in expenses ranges fromRs.1,500/- to Rs. 3,000/- per acre, per season, depending on the crops. Further the tank silt application contributed to increase in crop yields, reduction of soil erosion, increase in soil moisture retention, levelling of plot sizes etc.
- Another best impact of the Mission Kakatiya is an increase in groundwater levels in the tank influential areas. Though the rainfall during the baseline year is more than that during in the impact year, the rise in groundwater levels is more in the impact year due to larger and longer storage of water in the tanks. In base year, the average rise in groundwater level was 6.91 m, whereas it is 9.02 m in the year 2016.
- That there is an increase of household, agricultural income by 78.5% in the tank ayacut area. The reason for the increase can be attributed to increase in irrigated area and also the yields. That, at the constant MSP also, the increase in agricultural income is very impressive with 47.4% over the base year.
- The Fisheries: Apart from the farmers, the other major beneficiary of the Mission Kakatiya are the fishermen community. The Long storage period of the water in the tanks has resulted in the increasing fish weight and also the yield and on an average, there is an increase of 36 – 39% yield, That, particularly in the Rohu, Katla and Mrigala types of fish.
- During the baseline survey, 63% of the water users have expressed that the physical condition of the tanks in their area is poor, 3% are very poor. That, after the Mission Kakatiya Phase – I programme, the perception of the water users are 46.7% of the tanks are very good, 38.0 % are good, 11.2% are satisfactory and only 4.1% of the tanks are reported as below a satisfactory level, This is the yardstick to showcase how apparent and committed the Government has been in implementing the programme.
- After seeing the results of the Mission Kakatiya Phase I, the community is very enthusiastically coming forward to take up the maintenance works of the tanks in their areas to ensure the sustainability of the restored tanks.