The CAD programme was introduced in the Indira Gandhi Canal Command Area in 1974. It is one of the major irrigation projects in the country where this programme was introduced at the earliest. The programme was important for this area due to following reasons:

(i) Conveyance loss of water is about 30 to 50 per cent below outlet level in sandy soils. This not only results into under-utilisation of the water resource but causes water-logging and soil salinity adversely affecting the crop- yield.

(ii) This is a newly settled area and, therefore, requires civic amenities, infrastructural fa­cilities and supply of modern agricultural inputs.

(iii) Wind erosion and desertification cause siltation in canal and its distributaries and water courses. Besides, erosion also affects cultivable land of the area.

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(i) On-farm development which includes surveying and planning water course lining, land leveling, shaping and reclamation of degraded lands.

(ii) A forestation and pasture development which includes canal side and roadside plantation near new settlements, sand dune stabilization and pasture development on cultivable waste land.

(iii) Providing communication and civic ameni­ties which include construction of roads, connecting the settlements with markets, constructing of new markets and supplying drinking water.

(iv) Availability of modern agricultural inputs including ensuring supply of HYV seeds, chemical fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides and providing agricultural extension and training facilities to the farmers. Implementation of this programme has helped in bringing the land under irrigation rapidly, in­crease in water-use efficiency, agricultural produc­tion and productivity.

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The improvement in irrigation not only led to phenomenal increase in the agricul­tural production but introduced changes in the crop­ping pattern of the area. Now drought-resistant crops like bajra, jowar, moong, moth and gram were re­placed by irrigated crops like wheat, cotton, ground­nut and mustard etc. But it has also posed environ­mental problems in the form of water-logging and soil salinity.

There is rise in the ground-water table at an alarming rate of 0.8 meter per year in most part of Stage I of Canal development. These problems need our special attention so as to chalk out new strategies for environmental management and plan­ning in the command area programme.