Monitoring and evaluation of irrigated agriculture A case study of Bhima Project, India Asit K. Biswas Serious monitoring and evaluation of irrigated agriculture projects in de- veloping countries tends to be neg- lected by both national and donor agen- cies. After outlining a conceptual framework for monitoring and evalua- tion of irrigation projects, this article presents a case study of an evaluation carried out using the framework de- veloped on the Bhima Command Area Development Project In Maharestra, In- dia. It is argued that If the irrigated agriculture projects are to achieve their Initially planned potential, It is essential to carry out regular monitoring and evaluation as an integral part of the management process. Asit K. Biswas is the President of the International Society for Ecological Modell- ing and former Vice-President of Interna- tional Water Resources Association. He can be contacted at 76 Woodstock Close, Oxford, OX2 8DD, UK. IAsit K. Biswas, 'Evaluating irrigation's impact: guidelines for project monitoring', Ceres, Vol 18, No 4, July-August 1985, pp 23-26. 2Asit K. Biswas, 'Environment and sustain- able water development', Keynote Address, IVth World Congress, Interna- tional Water Resources Association, Buenos Aires, 1982, in Water for Human Consumption, Tycooly International, Dub- lin, pp 375-392; and Asit K. Biswas, 'Health environment and water develop- continued on page 48 Projects on irrigated agriculture have produced intense optimism as well as pessimism in recent years. On the positive side, there is no doubt that timely, reliable and well-managed water availability and its effective use is an essential prerequisite for modern high-yielding agricultural production. The importance of irrigated agriculture can be realized by the simple fact that although only about 20% of the world's agricultural land is now under irrigation, it contributes to nearly 40% of the total global agricultural output. Clearly, the world food problem cannot be resolved without adequate water control. 1 On the negative side, results of numerous recent projects on irrigated agriculture leave much to be desired. Not only have many of these projects contributed to serious environmental, social and health problems, z but also very few - if any - projects have fulfilled their planned production potential within their designed time and cost frameworks. Furthermore, certain irrigation projects have been intense disappointments in recent years. For example, a review carried out by the Club du Sahel and the Permanent Inter-State Committee on Drought Control in the Sahel (CLISS) of the irrigated agriculture projects in the Sahel concluded that the area under modern irrigation doubled during the period 1960-79, but 'generally speaking, during the past few years, the development of new areas has barely surpassed the surface [area] of older ones which had to be abandoned'. 3 Undoubtedly, one of the main reasons for the simultaneous express- ion of the extremes of optimism and pessimism concerning irrigated agriculture projects is the general lack of objective monitoring and evaluation of these projects. One would be hard pressed to use all the fingers of one hand to count the number of projects in developing countries which have been reliably and objectively evaluated five, ten and 20 years after their completion. In addition, regrettably, far too 0306-9192/87/010047-1553.00 © 1987 Butterworth & Co (Publishers) Ltd 47