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8/14/2019 Good paper_EPW irrigation in South India doc.rtf
1/16
Irrigation and the Great Indian
Rural DatabaseVignettes from South IndiaThe census offers an irreplaceable dataset to examine local settings and study them on
various scales, from a global perspective contrasting regional trends down to villagewisevariations. This paper seeks to demonstrate that irrigation data from the Indian census has
been severely underutilised in this regard, and also offers a view on the issues
that can be researched using village level statistics.
It is more common in India to lament over the lack ofaccurate sources of in-formation than to deplore theunderuse of existing ones. It is therefore not surpris-
ing to read in a recent assessment of irriga-tion statistics in
West Bengal [Rawal 2001] that these data remain
unreliable and in-complete, in spite of the numerous
sources that are scrutinised. Most data users are familiar
with this type of situation and have to struggle with
incomplete or dis-cordant data to study the dynamics of
agri-cultural change. What looks more puzzling is that this
survey of irrigation statistics leaves out one of the richest
sources for irrigation studies in India, which appeared in
the 1990s. This omission is unfortu-nately quite commonand does not concern only the domain of irrigation
statistics. The rural database derived from the census is
probably the most underused source in the study of
contemporary Indian economy.
This brief paper will endeavour to give a rapid survey of
the wealth of data that lies unused in the census
publications. The salient points of the argumentation will
rely on the examination of the irrigation data, which
constitutes but a small fraction of the database. Materials
used in this paper, collected in the course of a research
project on south India, will provide a sample of possible
applications of these data for description, exploration,
identification, analysis and synthesis. Beforehand, I shall
offer a brief overview of the nature of these vastly ignored
data.
Villages,Irrigationand the
Census of India
Since 1951, the Census of India has been collecting and
publishing data about all revenue villages in India.1Data
include
CHRISTOPH
EZ
GUILMOTO
most notably social
and demographic
par-ticulars
assembled from
individual records
collected at the
household level.
The type of data
tabulated at the
village level have
not changed so
much over the
censuses and cover
some of the most
familiar census
data: households,
population, dalit
and tribal
components,
literates, workers
and occupational
categories. The
1991 Census
published not lessthan 42 such
figures (also known
as Primary Census
Abstract) for the
5,80,781 inhabited
villages of India.
What is
surprisingly less
known is the fact
that information is
also collected at the
village level on
infrastructure and
land use. These
data are collected
prior to the
population census
day and cover avery wide gamut
of information
such as edu-
cational, health,
communication
and mar-ket
facilities, as well
as many other
amenities(water
and electricity
supply, etc).
Moreover, when a
given facility is
not locally
available, the
distance to the
near-est locality
where this facility
exists is given. As
part of this
exercise, the
census also
collects village
level data on land
use and irrigationpattern. These
infrastructure data
(also known as
Village Directory)
constitute another
96 variables that
are available for
all inhabited
villages.
In view of the
size of this single
source, it would
not be exaggeratedto call the village
census data the
Great Indian Rural
Database (hereafter
the GIRD). The
GIRD has thuslong included
decennial estimates
of irrigation down
to the village level.
Though yearly
estimates of
irrigation would be
preferable in view
of fluctuations in
land use in rural
India, the census
data carry the
advantage of
identifying all in-
dividual villages
and offering for
each of them
irrigation
estimates. No other
source provides
such a fine
geographical
picture
8/14/2019 Good paper_EPW irrigation in South India doc.rtf
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of the rural scene.2Landuse data are detailed in five
categories (forest land, irrigated land, unirrigated,cultivable waste, area not available for cultivation)apart from the village total area. As for irrigated areas,they are subdivided into 11 irriga-tion types (Table 1).Although many useful dimensions of irrigation aremiss-ing from the census (such as cropping intensity or
cultivated crops), no less than 13 irrigation statistics areprovided for all Indian villages.
Before examining these in detail, one may wonder why
these data have not been used more systematically to study
agricul-tural development at the local level. The main
explanation may lie in the fact that these data are found
only in the district level volumes published for individual
states. These volumes (District CensusHandbooks) are
usually published manyyears after the census and it is not
uncom-mon for
some of them to be
published while the
next census is
being launched.
These volumes,
which otherwise
contain invaluable
material on villages
and in-cludedetailed district or
taluk informa-tion,
are not easy to
locate themselves
and with the
exception of patient
PhD stu-dents, they
usually do not
reach out to the
potential audience
(planners,
administra-tors,
NGOs, research
scholars).
Moreover, the
printed data
scattered indozens of volumes
are almost
impossible to
compile to get a
larger picture for
taluks, districts or
states. Or so they
were till the 1991
Census.
In fact, the 1991
Census introduced
a radical change in
the dissemination
set-up by offering
data in a computer
format right from
the mid-1990s.Village data were
actually provided
on floppies long
before most of the
district handbooks
were pub-
Economic and Political Weekly March 30, 2002 1223
8/14/2019 Good paper_EPW irrigation in South India doc.rtf
3/16
Figure1:IrrigationTypesforIndividualStates,1991CensusVillage
Data
cent of the sample) where the
differencebetween these two totals was greaterthan
T a m il Na
d u
0.1 ha.7
The classification of cultivated land for
P o nd iche rry
south India is given in Table 1. As canbe
seen, some irrigation categoriescorrespond
K e
ra la
tonegligible
areas, while someother
categories (well and tubewell irrigation)
K a rnata ka
have been subdivided according topower
sources. There remain, however, two
main
A nd hra P rad e
s h open questions that our global analysis
cannot answer. First, are irrigation data
0%10 %20 % 30 %40 % 50 % 60 %70 %
80
% 90 %10 0
systematically collected and includedin
(Per cent)
the census records? Overall, theanswer
c an a l
w
e
ll
ta n
k
o
th
eseems to be positive. The state totaldoesmatch available data from othersources
for corresponding years. On the micro
level,
we have also tried to locate villagesreport-
lished. Data from the Primary Censustion data as a specific topic fordisaggre-
ing no irrigation in areas with thehighest
Abstract andVillage Directory are given
gat
ed
analysis.5
Th
ese
irrigation
data
irrigation levels (for example, along
the
at the district level in two separate files,happen to be dramatically under-
exploitedKaveri,Godavari and Krishna deltas).These
with an additional file containinglocation in view of their potential in a country
villages happen to be very few andthey
codes and village names. With a littlewhere irrigation is estimated to havein-
are usually clustered in distinctzones,
patience, it is actually possible to
combine creased fourfold since independence.
suggesting that local factors such as
terrain
these two sets of population and infra- A crucial question about these dataaccount for the absence of irrigationfa-
structure files into a single register of
village
concerns their quality, which dependson
cilities. Nevertheless, closecomparison
data for entire districts. As raw data en-the care with which village recordswere
with other aggregated data (at theblock
tered in computer format are not scruti-collected and compiled during the
census.or district level) would probably allowa
nised, inconsistencies and deficienciesare
It must be stressed at the outset thatlack
more accurate assessment of theseesti-
frequent.3 The infrastructure characteris-
of comparable village data prevents
any mates for specific regions.
tics of villages can then be comparedwith
attempt at assessing the precise qualityof The second question relates to the proper
their social and economic composition.the data. Like other censusdemographic
identification of irrigation categories.The
8/14/2019 Good paper_EPW irrigation in South India doc.rtf
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Once compiled for entire states, the data-estimates, irrigation data are simplythe
11 available categories for classifyingir-
base becomes a powerful tool to investi-only systematic source of informationat
rigation (shown in Table 1) may berespon-
gate rural issues from social,demographic
the village level. What can, however,be
sible for some amount of overlap orcon-
or economic perspectives. The GIRD hasexamined is the internal consistency of
the fusion. For instance, the difference be-
no match to describe and monitor severaldata and here our experience withthese
tween private and governmentcanals,
features of rural development at the mostdata inspires confidence. Using asample
between tubewells with and withoutelec-
decentralised level.4 of 70,260 villages with cultivated areas6,
tricity, or between lake and tank may
be
we checked the quality of the data andat times spurious. It is probably saferto
DataandTheir Quality
found only a negligible number oferro-
aggregate irrigation figures intobroader
neous or incomplete records. We also
notedcategories as we have done for thestate
In this paper, we will illustrate thethat in some cases, the reported totalir-
totals, as shown in Figure 1. All welland
usefulness of this database by using a
rigated area is different from the total
oftubewell categories have beenclubbed
sample derived from a project on fertilityindividual irrigation categories.
However,together, while lake irrigation hasbeen
decline. This sample consists of the entirein our south Indian sample, weidentified
merged with tank. Similarly, riverirriga-
village database for south India, that is,only 116 villages (that is, less than 0.2
pertion is here combined withgovernment
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala,Tamil
Nadu and Pondicherry union territory. ItTable1:IrrigatedandbyCategoriesinSouthIndia,1991VillageCensus
Data
includes a total of 70,984 inhabited vil-
IrrigationType Total Area Share of IrrigatedArealages. The number of villages actuallyused (ha) (Per Cent)
in the analysis may vary according to theGovernment
canal 30,4,3!" 3#$%
data examined because of the statistical Private canal ##,34 0$#deficiencies encountered (missing orerro-
Tan
& #3,',% #!$%
neous data). There is no doubt that com-
)ell*ithelectric
ity "4,3#,""4 "!$4
)ell*itho+telectric
ity ,'#,#"0 "0$3
ments and examples provided here are
T+e*ell*ithelectric
ity 3,%%,#!0 4$0
probably applicable to similar studies thatT+e*ell*itho+telectric
ity '0,#% 0$'
could be conducted in other areas of the
-iv
er ',0,300 '$!
.a&
e ,"4 "$"country. However, in view of the large
aterfall
',(
% 0$"
variety of informationincluded
inthe /ther o+rce 3,"!,3!! 3$4
GIRD, we shall focus here solely on
irriga-
Tot
al 3,#,'%" "00$0
1224Economic and Political Weekly March 30, 2002
8/14/2019 Good paper_EPW irrigation in South India doc.rtf
5/16
Figure!:"gri#ultural$or%for#eCo&positionand Density
"##ordingtoIrrigationevels,1991CensusVillage Data
cultivators (per cent)
60%
labourers (percent)
50
%
ag. workers (per
ha)
o
f
cultivators (per ha)
40
%
30
%
ce
20
%Pe
10
%
0
%
0-910-19
20-29
30-39
40-49
50-59
60-69
70-
7980-89
90-99
100
Irrigation level in per cent
graphic density. Irrigated villages support
larger populations, most notably because
the workforce engaged in agriculture (in-
cluding dalits) is significantly larger as will
be shown below. The analysis shows also
that higher irrigation goes along with closer
proximity to urban areas, following the
general pattern of Von Thunens model.
While the dalit is positively associated with
irrigation, mainly through the de-mand for
agricultural labour, tribal settle-ments are
obviously deprived of irrigation facilities.
Further analysis of qualitative data on
infrastructure development would also
show the positive association of ir-rigation
on a large array of collective amenities.
Surprisingly, the positive link between
literacy and irrigation appears to be almost
negligible. Obviously, many factors are
simultaneously at play and a
and
priv
atecan
al
irrigati
on.
An
oth
er
pos
-sibl
edra
wb
ack
isthe
fact
that
have
a
popu
latio
n
belo
w
200
for
whic
h
cens
us
estim
ates
are
likely
to be
fragil
e.9
As
Table
2
sho
ws,
all
indi
cato
rs
test
ed
agai
nst
irri
gati
on
turn
out
to
be
sign
ifi-
cant
ly
corr
elate
d
beca
use
of
the
sheer
size
of
our
samp
le.
How
ever,
this
statis
tical
analy
sis
indic
ates
some
intere
8/14/2019 Good paper_EPW irrigation in South India doc.rtf
6/16
sting corre-
lates of
higher
irrigation
levels. Thus,
the
percentage
of irrigated
area is
stronglyassociated
with canal-
and river-
based
irrigation.
Conversely,
the share of
tank or well
irrigation is
greater when
irrigation
level is
moderate.We shall
come back
below on
this
dimension
of the
irrigation
system,
which is
crucial in
understandin
g the role of
various
irrig
ation
type
s in
Tami
l
Nad
us
agri
cult
ural
deve
lop
men
t.
As
expe
cted,
irrig
ation
appe
arsalso
to be
posit
ively
asso
ciate
d
with
high
er
dem
o-
more
comprehe
nsive
statistical
analysis
would be
called for
in order
to
disentang
le the
specific
associatio
ns
between
irriga-
tion,
social
compositi
on and
various
di-mensions
of social
developm
ent such
as
literacy,
health,
and
schooling
facilities.
An
important
result of
our
analysis
is the
negative
correlati
on of
irrigatio
n with
the
proporti
on of
cultivato
rs. On
the
contrary,
the
proporti
on of
agricultu
ral
labourers in the
total
workforc
e is
much
higher in
irrigated
villages.
This
phenome
non is
better
captured
on the
data
plotted in
Figure 2.
Here, we
have
divided
villages
into 10
irrigation
classes,
starting
from 0-10
per cent
of
irrigated
areas to
100 per
cent.
Unweight
ed
averageshave been
com-
puted for
each class
in order to
display
the
changing
compositi
on of the
agricultur
al
Sta
tis
ti#
al"
nal
ysi
sof
Irr
iga
tio
n
in%ag
es
Th
e
GIR
D
lends
itself
to all
possi
ble
statis
tical
examinati
ons
in
v
i
e
w
o
f
i
t
s
c
o
m
p
u
t
e
r
f
o
r
m
a
t
.
While
data
acquis
ition
was
previo
usly
diffic
ult
from
publis
hed
sourc
es,
comp
uteris
ed
censu
s data
can
be
easily
proce
ssed.
This
allows
syste
matic
descri
ptio
n of
irrig
ation
featu
res
and
a
mor
e
elab
orate
stati
stica
l
anal
ysis.
In
this
secti
on,
we
have
perf
orm
ed a
corr
elati
on
analys
is of
irrigat
ion
level
using
other
vari-
ables
derive
d
from
the
GIRD
. This
analy-
sis
uses
popul
ation
as
statist
ical
weigh
ts as
avera
ge
villag
e size
is
extre
mely
variab
le in
the
differ
ent
social
and
ecolo
gical
re-
gions
of
south
India.
8 The
avera
ge
villag
e size
is
indee
d animpor
tant
featur
e to take into
account before
any serious
analysis, as
more than 17
per cent of
villages in
India
Table
!:Cor
relat
esofI
rriga
tion
evel'
ithot
herVi
llage
Chara
#teri
sti#s,
SouthIndianVillages,
to*n
1alit
Trie
.iteracy
C+ltivator
Agric+lt+rallao+rer
.ive0toc&,fi0hing,fore0
try
2ining, +arrying
o+ehold ind+try
5on6ho+ehold ind+try
Contr+ction
Trade and commerce
Tranportation
/ther ervice
N
o
t
e
s7
Co
rr
el
at
io
n
co
mp
+t
ed
on
%0
,#
'0
vil
lag
e
*it
h
tot
al
pop
+la
tio
n
+e
d
a
*ei
ght
8
Allcoe
ffi
cie
nt
ig
nif
ica
nt
at
"
per
cen
t
lev
el8
1at
afro
m
t
h
e
S
I
9
P
d
a
t
a
a
e
$
E
c
8/14/2019 Good paper_EPW irrigation in South India doc.rtf
7/16
8/14/2019 Good paper_EPW irrigation in South India doc.rtf
8/16
workfor
ce with
rising
irrigatio
n.
More-
over, a
simple
index of
agricultural
den
sity
(tot
al
agri
cult
uralwor
kfo
rce
per
hec
tare
of
cult
ivat
ed
lan
d)
has
als
o been
added.
The data
of Figure
2
demonst
rates thatincreas-
ing
irrigatio
n causes
a
sizeable,
gradual
decline
in the
share of
cultivato
rs
among
the
peasant
ry,
going
from 51
per
cent in
thedriest
villages
down
to 29
per
cent in
comple
tely
irrigate
d areas.
At the
same
time,
the
share of
agricultu
ral
labourers
records a
regular
increaseand is
greater
than that
of
cultivato
rs when
more
than half
of the
cultivate
d areas
are
cultivate
d.
Int
ere
sti
ngl
y,
the
inc
rea
se
of
agr
icu
ltu
ral
lab
our
do
es
not
ent
irel
y
o
f
f
s
e
t
t
h
e
d
e
c
l
i
n
e
i
n
cultiv
ators,
as an
incre
ase in
non-
agric
ultura
l
activi
ties
(indu
stry
and
servi
ce) is
also
notic
eable.
At
the
same
time
,
thes
e
irrig
atio
n
data
indi
cate
that
irrig
atio
n is
stro
ngly
con-
nect
ed
to
agri
cultural
den
sity.
Bec
ause
of
mul
tiple
crop
ping
,
irrig
atio
n
has
a
dire
ct
imp
act
on
the
gros
s
areaculti
vate
d
and
ther
efor
e on
labo
ur
dem
and.
This
iscap-
tured
in
Figur
e 2,
wher
e the
avera
ge
ag-
ricult
ural
workf
orce
is
plotte
d
again
st vil-
lage
irriga
tion
levels. Dry
villag
es
with,
8/14/2019 Good paper_EPW irrigation in South India doc.rtf
9/16
I
r
r
i
g
a
t
i
o
n
l
ev
e
l
(
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
of
c
+
l
t
i
v
a
t
e
d
a
r
ea
)
0
6
"
0
0
'
0
6
0
4
0
6
'
0
#
0
6
4
0
0
6
#
0
say, 10
hectares
of
cult
ivat
ed
lan
d
sup
por
ts
onl
y
8.5
wor
ker
s in
agri
cult
ure
(cul
tiva
tors
and
labour
ers)
.
The
nu
mb
er
of
wor
ker
s in
agri
cult
ure
dou
ble
s
wh
en
the
irri
gati
on
lev
elincr
eas
es
to
50
per
cen
t
and
alm
ost
trip
lesto
24.5
workers
when the
village is
complete
ly
irrigated.
This
differenc
e is
primaril
y due to
the
increasin
g
agricultu
ral
labour
per
cultivate
d
hectare.The
number
of
cultivato
rs per
hectare,
also
shown in
Figure 2,
increasin
g at a
much
slower
pace
when the
irrigatio
n level is
less than
50 per
cent and
remains
constant
thereafte
r. This
meansthat
when
irrigatio
n has
cros-sed
50 per
cent, the
addition
to the
agri-
cultural
workforc
e isentirely
due to
the
number
of
landles
s
laboure
rs and
mar-
ginal
farmers
. These
observa
tions
in-
directly
confir
m that
irrigati
on
tends to
worsenland
inequal
ity
for
which
we can
use the
ratio of
laboure
rs to
cultivat
ors as a
proxy.
Our
models
also
suggest
that any
in-
crease
in
irrigati
on
levelsmay
determi
ne an
increasi
ng
local
labour
demand
. On
the
contrar
y,
labourabsorpt
ion in
areas
where
irrigatio
n
remains
stagnant
may be
more
difficult.
Using
the data
derived
from this
T
hes
e
fea
tur
es
wo
uld
, of
co
urs
e,
req
uir
e
fur
the
r
an
aly
sis
in
ord
er
to
det
er
mi
ne
the
nat
ure
of
the
ca
usa
l
lin
ks
bet
we
en
vill
ag
e
ch
ara
cte
rist
ics
.
Ho
we
ver
,
agr
icu
ltu
ral
pro
s-per
ity
h
a
s
u
n
d
o
u
b
t
e
d
l
y
m
a
n
y
d
i
r
e
c
t
a
n
d
i
n
d
i
r
e
c
t
e
f
f
e
c
t
s
o
n
t
h
e
v
i
l
l
ag
e
struc
ture
that
could
be
exam
ined
using
such
data.
Con-
trary
to
other
sourc
es on
irriga
tion,
the
GIR
D
inclu
des
both
agric
ultura
l and
socio
-
demo
graph
ic
chara
cteris
tics
of
villag
es.
The
analy
sis
can
theref
ore
focus
not
only
on
select
ed
regio
ns,
wher
e
linka
ges
be-
tween
irriga
tion
andpopul
ation
figu
res
wou
ld
be
adm
itted
ly
mor
e
mea
ning
ful
than
for
the
who
le of
sout
h
Indi
a,
but
also
on
othe
r
spec
ific
issu
es.
For
inst
anc
e,
base
d on
the
sam
e
data
set,
our
own
rese
arch
has
sho
wn
the
size
able
role
play
ed
by
irrig
a-
tion
in
fertility
redu
ction.
11
Dem
ograp
hic
data
used
to
investigate
the
deter
mina
nts of
fertili
ty
decli
ne
rarely
incor
porat
edirect
infor
matio
n on
agric
ultura
l
devel
opme
nt
such
as
irrigation
patter
ns.
(
a
p
p
i
n
g
C
e
n
s
u
s
D
a
t
a
:
Con
8/14/2019 Good paper_EPW irrigation in South India doc.rtf
10/16
toursofI
rrigation
Mapp
ing
vill
age
-
lev
el
dat
a
repr
ese
nts
a
furt
her
imp
rov
em
ent
in
the
GIRD.
While
most
district-
level
informat
ion is
now pro-
vided in
a
cartogra
phic
format,
there is
almost
no
attempt
to map
local
data.
How-
ever, as
most
census
district
handbo
oks
offer
maps to
locate
village
units, it
is also
possibl
e to
draw
maps
of rural
localities
. As part
of our
original
project
on south
India, we
prepared
such
villagewi
se maps
for south
Indian
rural
localities
.12From
1andPoliti
calWe
eklyMarc
h 30, 2002
8/14/2019 Good paper_EPW irrigation in South India doc.rtf
11/16
Figure):Irrigation*atternsinTa&il+adu,1991Census Data
Irrigationpattern
:nirrigated canal
2i;ed pattern
Tan&ell
India does not conform to the usual ad-
ministrative classification. This map could
be fruitfully enlarged in order to zoom
inon smaller regions. As the database is
extremely detailed, such mapping could berestricted to areas the size of a district.
While the previous map offered a syn-
thetic description of irrigation in south India,
the next one attempts a more ana-lytical
presentation of a region. It is based on the
classification of irrigation types already
shown in Figure 1 and is restricted to Tamil
Nadu, where irrigation levels are the highest
in rural South India.15 Irrigation in Tamil
Nadu corresponds chiefly to paddy
cultivation, while important irrigated cash
crops are groundnut and sugarcane.
We first performed a thorough statisticalanalysis of irrigation patterns and identi-
fied five categories of villages, namely,
unirrigated (irrigation accounts for less
8/14/2019 Good paper_EPW irrigation in South India doc.rtf
12/16
than 20 per cent of cultivated land); where canal irrigation accounts
for more than 50 per cent of all irrigated areas; well irriga-tion
accounts for more than 50 per cent of all irrigated areas; tank
irrigation ac-counts for more than 50 per cent of all irrigated areas;
mixed pattern corresponds to areas where no single irrigation type
account for more than 50 per cent of all irrigated areas.
this source,
we have
prepared
two irriga-
tion maps
that we
present in
this section.
As rivers in
south Indiaare mostly
seasonal and
the climate
overall
semi-arid
(except for
the western
coast),
irrigation
has been,
during the
recent
period, acrucial
factor in
agricultural
prosperity.1
3
The first
map (Figure
3) covers the
whole of
south India
and consists
of a contourmap of
irrigation
levels.14
Irrigation is
a highly
localised
phenomenon
, the map of
south India
offers a clear
picture of re-
gional
divisions.The map
shows the
east-ern
gradi
ent of
irriga
tion
in
south
India.
Apart
from
pocke
ts
along
the
weste
rn
coast
of
Karn
ataka
and
Keral
a,
wher
e
rainfa
ll is
other
wise
abun
dant,irriga
tion
is
mainl
y
conce
ntrate
d in
Andh
ra
Prade
sh
andTamil
Nadu
. This
is
chiefl
y
relate
d to
major
rivers
such
as
Godavari
or
Kave
ri, which
flow
eastwards
into the
Bay of
Bengal.
The basins
and delta
determinat
e large
irri-gated
areas that
are clearly
discernibl
e on the
map.
Moreo
ver, old
and new
forms of
alter-
native
irrigatio
n
through
tanksand
tubewell
s allow
irrigatio
n in
other
areas in
the
interior,
most
notably
in entire
Tamil
Nadu
and
coastal
Andhra,
where
irrigatio
n levels
are
rarely
below
20 per
cent ofcultivate
d areas.
The
Deccan
plateau,
which
cuts
across
the
Karnata
ka-
Andhra
Pradeshborder,
appears
as a
uniform
region in
terms of
irrigation.
Most
villages
enjoy no
irrigation
at all,
except in
isolated
tracts
clustered
around
major
dams(Krishnar
aja Sagar,
Nizam
Sagar,
Nagarjun
a Sagar)
or along
some of
the
tributaries
of the
major
rivers.
As the
original
database
is
extremely
fine,
contours
do not
follow
district or
even taluk
boundaries. On the
contrary,
they
divide
administr
ative
boundarie
s, in-
cluding
state
boundarie
s. Many
isolated
pockets
appear on
the map,
iden
tifyi
ng
spec
ific
sub-
regi
ons
with
disti
nct
irrig
a-
tion
syst
em.
This
sugg
ests
that
the
ecolo-
gica
l
zoni
ng
of
irrig
atio
n
patt
erns
in
sout
h
a
t
a
f
o
r
t
h
e
1
5
,
0
0
0
-
o
dd
v
i
l
l
a
g
e
s
i
n
T
a
m
i
l
N
a
d
u
w
e
r
e
f
i
r
s
t
m
e
r
g
e
d into
1,442
spati
al
clust
ers
befor
e the
carto
graph
ic
analy
sis.
For
each
of
these
clust
ers,
the
irriga
tionpatter
n has
been
comp
uted
along
the
for-
mula
given
abov
e.
Unirr
igate
d
tracts
(less
than
20
per
cent
of
the
cultiv
atedarea)
are
show
n as a
blank
on
the
map.
As
mixe
d
areas
are
few
in
numb
er
and
irri
gati
on
typ
es
spat
iall
y
con
cent
rate
d,
the
ma
p
pro
vid
es a
coh
erent
divi
sion
of
Ta
mil
Nad
u
into
co
mp
act
irri
gati
on
zon
es.
The
can
al
typ
e
pre
do
minates
in
the
Kav
eri
delt
a,
fro
m
Tir
uchi
rap
alli
dow
n to
the
ocean
, as
well
as
along
in
other
isolat
ed
pock
ets
along
the
coast
and
in
weste
rn
Tamil
Nadu
. The
mainarea
of
tank
irriga
tion
is
found
to the
south
of the
Kave
ri
river,
in an
area
that
stretc
hes
from
Pudu
kkott
ai to
Rama
natha
puram.
Smal
ler
tank-
irriga
ted
pock
ets
are
also
visibl
e
along
the
coast.
Well
8/14/2019 Good paper_EPW irrigation in South India doc.rtf
13/16
irrigation
covers most
of the inland
tracts, which
are
characterise
d by red and
black soils.
Several
large
-
scale
pock
ets of
dry
areas
are
also
found in
different
parts of
the state,
be it on
the coast
or along
the
Karnataka
border.
This
patterni
ng of
irrigatio
n as
obtained
in Tamil
Nadu
closely
reflects
geophysic
al
dimensio
ns such
as the
drainage
system,E
c
onom
ic
and
Poli
tical
Week
ly March 30, 2002
1227
8/14/2019 Good paper_EPW irrigation in South India doc.rtf
14/16
the soil map as well as rainfall distribution.
Moreover, because of the relationship of
irrigation with the social and economic
profile ofrural areas, the irrigation map has
also important consequences on the settle-
ment pattern and on labour absorption
capacity as previously mentioned. Of late,
excessive reliance on groundwater in Tamil
Nadu has caused water levels to fall, while
over irrigation is also responsible for soilsalinisation.This means that both economic
and environmental concerns warrant a
detailed monitoring of the progress of
irrigation.This type of irrigation map,
which cannot be produced from any other
source,16would therefore deserve a sepa-
rate analysis of its own.
Con#lusion
This overview has confirmed that irri-
gation data from the census have beenseverely underutilised so far. Even while
other sourcescomprise important additional
information, the census offers an irreplace-
able dataset to examine local settings and
study them on various scales, from a global
perspective contrasting regional trends
down to villagewise variations. The paper
has tried to offer a general view of several
research issues that can be fruitfully inves-
tigated with the village statistics.
The sheer size of the information col-
lected in the GIRD has prevented so far a
systematic analysis by the Census of India.Analytical publications on infra-structure
data are very rare and limited in their
thematic and geographical scope. Scholars
should contribute to the census enterprise
by attempting a more systematic
description and quality assessment of the
village data. This can be followed by more
detailed studies of various socio-economic
or infrastructural features. In the case of
irrigation illustrated in this paper, the
analysis would probably start with the ex-
amination of irrigation patterns as exem-plified in our presentation of the Tamil
Nadu map. Linkages between irrigation on
the one hand and labour composition,
economic or social development, and local
infrastructures on the other, may represent
further topics for in-depth investigations
based on the GIRD.
The 2001 Census has now been success-
fully completed and the preliminary re-
sults are already available in a variety of
formats. When village level data become
available, there is no doubt that they will
be doubly interesting. Not only will theyoffer the best outline of the unequal impact
of economic development in rural areas at
the beginning of the 21st century, but
combined with 1991 data, they will also
minutely describe the dynamics of change
during a decade that has witnessed some of
the most important developments in Indias
economic history. It may become then
difficult to study the development of
irrigation and the redeployment of agricul-
tural labour in rural areas without using
census data to explore regional trajecto-
ries. It is hoped that this presentation of the
GIRD will revive the scholarly inter-ests in
changing rural contexts while sug-gesting
new tools for analysis.
+otes
[The database and maps were prepared for the
South India Fertility Project, a joint research
programme conducted at the French Institute of
Pondicherry, with support from the Wellcome
Trust. The help from Z Headley, S
Vingadassamy, R Amuda and Allah Pichay is
gratefully acknowledged.]
1 For more information on the Census of India,
see their efficient web site:
www.censusindia.net.
2 As Rawals paper reminds us, data from theagricultural census are often based on
sample surveys and are not available below
the district level.
3 Matching infrastructure and socio-demo-graphic data for villages is not as easy as it
seems. Users will often discover puzzling
errors in village names or identification
codes that prevent any automatic coupling of
the two sources.
4 The large survey conducted by the NCAERin 1994 [Shariff 1999] covered only 1,765
villages and its findings cannot therefore be
directly compared with the census.
5 However, research using the south Indiadatabase has been already initiated on many
other subjects such as female discrimination in
Salem areas, deforestation in Kodagu district,
and fertility decline, etc. See for example the
analysis in Ramakrishnan et al (2000).
6 A good 724 villages, mostly located on forestland, report no cultivated land at all and cannot
be used for the rest of our analysis.
7 Errors among other infrastructural data fromtheVillage Directory are much more frequent
than among acreage estimates.
8 Due to its peculiar ecological and admini-strative features, the average population of
Keralas villages is of 15,000 inhabitants,
that is, 10 times more than in the rest of
south India. Conversely, census villages in
some areas like the Mysore plateau or the
tribal areas of the northern Circars have
often populations lesser than 500
inhabitants.
9 For regional comparisons, see Census of
India (1997).
10To compute this 8.5 per cent value, we first
regressed agricultural density against irrigation
levels. From this model, we deduced the
8/14/2019 Good paper_EPW irrigation in South India doc.rtf
15/16
irrigation increase corresponding to a 13.2 per
cent increase in the workforce; 13.2 per cent is
the total population increase between 1991 and
2001 for the entire region of south India.
11 Villagewise fertility levels are negatively
correlated with irrigation levels, even after
controlling for the effects of a large number
of other fertility determinants. See
Chakrabarty and Guilmoto (2001).
12 The map and database for TamilNadu have been subsequently published in
CD format. See Guilmoto et al (2000).
However, village boundaries have not been
digitised.
13 Yields in irrigated areas are onaverage twice that of rain-fed agriculture.
See Gulati and Kelley (1999) for a
disaggregated analysis of agricultural growth
in semi-arid areas.
14 As the number of village units washuge, villages lying within a 5-km radius
were aggregated, resulting in a simplified
database of 6,986 spatial units. More detail
on the preparation of maps in this paper isavailable from the author.
15 The map has been prepared inrelation to a research project on tank
irrigation conducted by Olivia Aubriot
(CNRS/FIP). A trend map of irrigation levels
in Tamil Nadu is also provided in Guilmoto
et al (2000). More maps on our web site
(http://members.rediff.com/ sifp/).
16 Detailed maps of irrigation in TamilNadu based on administrative divisions may
be found in Ramesh and Tiwari (1983).
eferen#es
Census of India (1997): Availability of
Infrastructure Facilities in Rural Areas of
India: An Analysis of Village Directory Data,
Office of Registrar General, New Delhi.
Chakrabarty, M and C Z, Guilmoto (2001): An
Analysis of the Determinants of Fertility
Behaviour in South India at the Village
Level, unpublished manuscript.
Guilmoto, C Z, S Oliveau, S Vingadassamy and
R Amuda (2000): South Indian Population
Information System, Volume I: Tamil Nadu
and Pondicherry, CD-ROM published bythe
French Institute with support from the
United Nations Fund for Population,
Pondicherry.
Gulati, Ashok, and Tim Kelley (1999): Trade,
Liberalisation and Indian Agriculture
Cropping Pattern Changes and Efficiency
Gains in the Semi-Arid Tropics, Oxford
University Press,.
Ramakrishnan, P S et al, (eds) (2000):Mountain
Biodiversity, Land Use Dynamics, and
Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Oxford
and IBH, New Delhi.
Ramesh, A and T S Tiwari (1983):Basic Resources
Atlas of Tamil Nadu, Department ofGeography,
University of Madras, Madras.
Rawal, Vikas (2001): Irrigation Statistics in
West-Bengal, Economic and Political
Weekly, XXXVI, 27, July 7, 2537-44.
Shariff, Abusaleh (1999): India: Human
Development Report. A Profile of Indian
States in the 1990s, National Council of
Applied Economic Research, Oxford
University Press, Delhi.
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1228 Economicand PoliticalWeekly March 30,2002