There has been renewed interest in recent times
in the impact of irrigation development on rural poverty.
However, compared to the micro-level research methods based
on surveys of command areas of irrigation projects, the focus
of inquiry has now shifted to the macro-level. For long, irrigation
impact studies focused on direct impact on command area agriculture,
ascertaining if it has improved agricultural productivity,
changed land use behavior, and facilitated transition to Green
Revolution technologies. Recent IWMI-Tata research suggests
that irrigation projects act as magnets that attract rural
poverty from their surround. The central research issue to
be addressed now is: does investing in irrigation help reduce
rural poverty in a region? How can design and management of
irrigation projects help do so?
