IWRA Proceedings

Samrat Ashok Sagar Project originally known as Halali Project is located in the Malwa Plateau of Madhya Pradesh. It has the culturable command area (CCA) of 27924 ha. The area proposed for Kharif irrigation was 12545 ha and during Rabi irrigation was 25091 ha with the irrigation intensity of 135%. Cropping pattern proposed was predominantly paddy during Kharif and wheat during Rabi. Unfortunately after the completion of the project, the cropping pattern proposed did not come up. During kharif, soybean became the predominant crop. Comparing paddy, the water requirement of soybean is very low. This created an imbalance in the project water use. This not only adversely affected the water utilisation but also adversely affected the irrigation revenue and agroproductivity of the area. Analysing the water availability, cultivation cost of crops, land features and climatically suitable crops of various use were identified for the project area. Linear programming was used to find the optimal crop pattern being diversified in nature and multiple utility. The optimal diversified crop pattern included 16.22% soybean, 2.45% groundnut, 1.22% maize, 1.22% red gram, 1.22% blackgram, 3.67% green gram, 3.67% paddy, 2.45% sorghum, 1.22% vegetable (Kharif), 2.45% cotton, 2.45% sugarcane, 18.35% wheat (HYV), 18.37% wheat (local) 4.90% gram, 2.45% barley, 2.45% pea, 1.22% lentil, 2.45% mustard, 1.22% linseed, 1.22% safflower, 1.22% berseem, 5.31% potato, 1.22% tomato and 1.31% cauliflower. The average cropping intensity proposed is 146.18% and net benefit is Rs.29.33 crores.