Articles by B D Dhawan

How Cost Effective?
B D Dhawan Canal irrigation is a costly proposition, more so when provided under government aegis because of grave inefficiencies in project implementation and canal operation. To irrigate one crop hectare with canal water it costs the nation Rs 2,277 infixed and variable expenses in 1992-93. Barely 5 per cent of this cost was recovered through irrigation fees levied on farmers, What is more disturbing is that, net of price inflation, marginal cost of canal irrigation tended to rise by 8 per cent per annum in recent years. Is this huge cost rise (in real terms) a genuine phenomenon, or merely indicative of large-scale corruption in irrigation department? With marginal cost of irrigation increasing phenomenally, would canal irrigation remain an economically viable proposition at all?

Price and Non-Price Factors in Agricultural Investments B D Dhawan V N MISRA AND PETER B HAZELL {EPW, October 26,1996) have responded to my observations (EPW, June 22, 1996) on their paper (EPW, March 30, 1996). Some of their clarifications are welcome. Yet, a response to their rejoinder would be in order, affording me an opportunity to clarify my position where I have been misunderstood. My observations essentially touched on the three following issues:

Price and Non-Price Factors in Agricultural Investments B D Dhawan THE observations which follow arise out of a critical reading of V N Misra and Peter B R Hazell's paper Terms of Trade, Rural Poverty, Technology and Investment: The Indian Experience 1952-53 to 1990-91' (EPW, March 30). My major concern is with their following conclusion: ... the empirical evidence for the entire period of three decades clearly shows that the terms of trade and technology have been responsible for increasing the private investment in agriculture. It seems during the late 1980s the increase in private investment has not only helped in raising production and farmers' incomes but also improved the efficiency of investment made in agriculture despite unfavourable terms of trade (p A-11). Admittedly, Misra and Hazell (MH hereafter) have reckoned with both price and non-price factors in agricultural growth process, especially the interactive role of terms of trade with H Y V technology variable. But in their zeal to underscore the role of price factor which has been underplayed in earlier research writings they have un- warrantedly down played the role of three following non-price instruments in private capital formation in agriculture: (1) public investments in agricultural sector (major, medium and minor irrigation works; soil and water conservation works, agricultural research, etc); (2) public investments for agriculture development but outside the agriculture sector (rural electrification, rural roads, fertiliser and pesticide industries, etc); and (3) institutional credit through commercial and co-operative financial institutions.

B D Dhawan Official statistics indicate a rather confusing picture of groundwater exploitation in India. As per the irrigated area figures of the Planning Commission, development of groundwater irrigation has reached disturbing levels in many states, notably UP. Gujarat, Punjab and Tamil Nadu. But the less known volumetric statistics in respect of groundwater irrigation compiled at the behest of the Central Groundwater Board are rather reassuring. Barring a dozen districts of the West Indo-Gangetic plains, no state as a whole appears to have reached the danger mark of groundwater over-exploitation. The reality is somewhere between these extremes, more likely nearer to the Board's than the Commission's assessment.

to emulate his example and remain my essential modest self, not overawed by the pomp and panoply of residence in Rashtrapati Bhawan''. However, numerous passages in the narrative reflect the vainglory of Lord Curzon rather than the simplicity of Rajen Babu or Rajaji. RV was continually overawed by the "sheer majesty of Rashtrapati Bhawan, its massive structure, extraordinarily high ceilings and long winding corridors'' So was he by the bodyguards "all six feel and over" with their "blue-and-gold turbans and white long coats with gold girdles" mounted on "fine bay horses no less distinctive than their riders". He was thrilled by the 'gleaming black six-door limousine" in which the president rides to parliament where, on arrival, the usher announces the ''Mahamahim Rashtrapatiji" in "stentorian tones". Nor should one miss the 640 kg silver chair in the Ashoka Hall seated on which the president receives the credentials of ambassadors. There is an enormous amount of such trivia wrapped in tinsel throughout the book.