P.O.Box 47 6700 AA Wageningen
Tel	:	0317 - 495 549
Fax	:	0317 - 495 590
Email	:	ilri@ilri.nl
Web	:	www.ilri.nl

The massive post-Independence development of irrigation has brought sufficient water for crops to millions of farms in India for the first time. Irrigation development was a major factor in India’s ability to enhance food production in irrigated areas and attain self-sufficiency in cereal grain production. Nevertheless, these successes are not unblemished. In many canal commands, there has been a rise in the water table and consequent degradation of soils through water logging and secondary salt build-up. Reclamation attempts in the past have revealed that no single prescription can be recommended to manage waterlogged and salt-affected soils. It is, therefore, essential to test the basic framework of reclamation technologies for location-specific improvements before they are applied in a region.

With the realisation that no single organisation can test and disseminate these technologies, the Government of India and the State Governments of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, and Rajasthan joined forces with the Government of the Netherlands and formulated the Indo-Dutch Network Project on Drainage and Water Management for Salinity Control in Canal Commands.

The Project was a joint endeavour of the Governments of India and the Netherlands. Representing the interests of the two Governments are the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Royal Netherlands Embassy in New Delhi. The implementing agencies in India was The Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI), Karnal.

The supporting agency in the Netherlands is the International Institute for Land Reclamation and Improvement. The Project started on the first of November 1995 and ended in 2002.

For further information visit Alterra research.