The figures in the above Table have been extracted from the latest issue of the "Agricultural Statistics of India." Figures for government irrigation systems, that is for irrigation under works which have been constructed or which are maintained, wholly or partially, by the State are given in the Table below, the figures in which are taken from the "Annual Review of Irrigation in India" : * Exclusive of the value of crops raised on some three million acres irrigated by non-capital works. It will be seen that, on the average of the five years ending with 1925-26, 11.8 per cent of the entire cropped area of the country was irrigated by government irrigation works and that the collective value of the crops so irrigated amounted to one-and-a-half times the total capital expended on the works. TION OF IRRIGATION 66 66 268. The works which, between them, irrigate approximately fifty million acres of land are classified in the statistics GENERAL DESCRIP published by the Government of India under four heads canals, tanks, wells and other sources." As explained by the Irrigation Commission under canals" come all works of any considerable size for diverting the water of streams or rivers, and carrying them on to the land; under "tanks," all works for the storage of water, and all natural depressions of which the water is used for irrigation; and under "wells," works for giving access to the subterranean supply, or to the waters of rivers which, running deep below the level of the ground, have to be lifted vertically before they can be used for flow irrigation. "Other sources" have never been clearly defined but consist for the most part of temporary bunds for the storage of rainfall, of lift irrigation from rivers, and of channels from rivers and streams which are too small to be classed as canals. The areas irrigated from the different classes of works are given in the following Table. The figures are averages of the five years 1921-22 to 1925-26 :— Canals are thus of greater importance than the other three classes together. Irrigation under tanks is most extensive in the Madras Presidency where there are over 35,000 of them, of which about 28,000 are in the ryotwari area of the province; of the latter about 25,000 are in charge of the Revenue Department and the remainder in charge of the Public Works Department. The total area irrigated by tanks in that province is nearly as large as that irrigated by canals. Well irrigation is most important in the United Provinces where it accounts for more than half the total irrigated area. Even in the Punjab, where the irrigation under tanks and "other sources" is negligible, the area irrigated by wells amounts to a quarter of the total irrigated area. The greater part of the area under other sources is contributed by the United Provinces (2.3 million acres) and by Bihar and Orissa (1.2 million acres). POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENTS OF IRRIGATION UNDER CANALS (i) THE PUNJAB. 269. We do not propose to describe in detail the existing canal systems of India or the projects for their extension which are now in process of construction or are contemplated. The importance of irrigation to Indian agriculture is, however, so profound and, notwithstanding recent developments, the possibilities of its extension are still so great that some mention of these projects is inevitable. The very brief description of the most important of them which is all that can here be given must not be regarded as in any way indicating a preference on our part for a particular scheme. Although, by the skilful utilisation of the waters of the Indus and of its tributaries as well as of those of the Jumna, the area under irrigation from government works in the Punjab has steadily increased (a) Included under "Canals." *The difference between this figure and that of 49,936,000 acres in the second Table on page 326 is due to the fact that the latter figure includes areas sown twice under irrigation. |