Resource information
Irrigation has made a major contribution
to poverty reduction in the past decades, enabling higher
yields and better nutrition. Despite these achievements,
large-scale irrigation schemes have usually yielded low
returns and attracted negative publicity because of their
adverse environmental and social impacts. As a result, the
Bank has largely switched its support for irrigation away
from new construction toward rehabilitation and policy
reform. This evaluation supports the need for reform but
shows that there are substantial benefits from further
investment in infrastructure. This study analyzes these
issues through an impact evaluation of one of the last
"old generation" of projects in which the Bank
directly supported creation of a new irrigation scheme:
India's Second and Third Andhra Pradesh Irrigation
Projects (AP II and AP III). Together these projects created
a new command area, the Srisailem Right Branch Canal (SRBC),
and rehabilitated an existing one that had been constructed
with Bank assistance, the Sriramasagar Project.
