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Analysis Study Research Paper | Geography | India | Volume 12 Issue 6, June 2023
Irrigation and Agricultural Development in Malaprabha River Basin, Karnataka State: A Geographical Study on Progress and Determinants
Abstract: Water is the real elixir of life; irrigation is the font of civilization, and is one of the most essential inputs next only to land for the agricultural development. Agriculture plays an essential role in the process of economic development of less developed countries like India. Besides providing food to nation, agriculture releases labour, provides saving, contributes to market of industrial goods and earns foreign exchange. Agricultural development is an integral part of overall economic development. Only rainfall is the natural source of water for irrigation, but rainfall is the most unreliable and is marked by wide variations in different parts of the nation and also variation from year to year in its quantity, incidence, and duration. Thus irrigation is a dynamic and decisive factor in Indian agriculture due to inadequacy and high variability of rainfall. Therefore, the present study is made to analyze the role and impact of irrigation on the agriculture development in the talukas of Malaprabha River Basin, which includes the appreciation of the sources of irrigation and specifically focused on how agrarian development has changed due to irrigational facilities. Keeping this view in mind this paper pursues the land use pattern, population and agricultural work forces, and cropping pattern and finally the Kendall?s Ranking Co - efficient technique is used to assess the progress by means of agricultural land use efficiency equipped for the river basin area. The river basin area is a one of the natural regions with agriculture being the lifeline of the inhabitants of the area. In the study area the variations of an annual rainfall from year to year is fairly large. The rainfall is irregular and uncertain in the study area; here agriculture is the gambling with monsoon. Droughts and famines are part of life of the people in basin area. If the rainfall is scare, it results into crop failure. For the assured agriculture practices, irrigation is a basic input in dry and semidry climates. Thus irrigation is the harbinger for change and development in the Malaprabha River Basin.
Keywords: Irrigational facilities, Rainfall variations, Cropping Pattern, Land Use Efficiency Regions and Agriculture Development
Edition: Volume 12 Issue 6, June 2023,
Pages: 159 - 169