Performance Evaluation of an Irrigation Project: Investigative Case Analysis on Teesta Barrage Irrigation Project

Abstract

A huge area of North-west region of Bangladesh suffers much due to the paucity of water and unimproved irrigation system for producing seasonal crops. Besides, rivers in this territory do not have sufficient flow to contribute in irrigation except the Teesta river. Taking the facts in consideration, the necessity of a barrage was perceived and planned at river Teesta. Henceforth this paper was an attempt to study the objectives behind the construction of the Teesta irrigation project along with its achievements, predicted goals, present conditions and thus to evaluate the overall performance of this irrigation project from several viewpoints, such as agriculture performance, cropping intensity, production performance, economic and social aspects. However, performance of the irrigation project has been evaluated through canal network performance using agricultural, water use and economic indicators. Data was collected from both the primary and secondary sources through literature review, field visit and questionnaire survey. Data was analyzed for the year 2000 to 2011. The results revealed that the production performance varied from 0.65 to 2.86, 0.44 to 0.98 and 0.34 to 1.54 during kharif-I, kharif-II, and Rabi season respectively. The cropping intensity was also found to vary from 0.77 to 0.93 throughout the study period which indicates that the cropping intensity had been increasing gradually with an upward trend. Analyses findings depict that the project has been successful in a broader sense though it has some adverse outcomes as well.