CSA Xpert

Canal irrigation is the cheapest and the most favourable source of irrigation in Odisha. In the scheduling of canal irrigation, the flow of water in canal has to be maintained so that farmers can get water as per their requirement in an adequate, dependable, efficient, and equitable fashion. Proper scheduling of canal irrigation matches the supply with demand and saves about 40-60% water. However, difficulties in scheduling irrigation occur for the tail-ender farmers due to inequitable distribution of water caused by the seepage loss or use of more water by farmers at the starting point that makes farmers at the tail end to get a lower volume of water compared to farmers at the privileged positions, particularly at the head of the watercourse. Water allocation on volumetric basis by the Pani Panchayat is an option for optimum utilization of available canal water uniformly. Additionally, canal water helps to raise the groundwater table by 0.3–0.4 m annually.