Command Area refers to the area whose water needs are fulfilled by a water body/basin project e.g.: River Ganga’s command area spans across 5 states of Uttarakhand, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand & West Bengal. It includes the area which is otherwise uncultivable.

Command area development plan was in 1974-75 to narrow the gap between irrigation potential created and actually utilised in major and medium irrigation schemes.

Body

Initially, 60 major and medium projects were taken, covering a cultivable command area of 15 million hectares. Till now 314 projects with a cultivable command area of 28.95 million have been taken. From eleventh five-year plan onwards, scheme was implemented as a state sector scheme.

Plan had provided various components – 

1. construction of field channels and field drains 
2. land shaping.
3. introduction of rotational supply of water

Role in increasing agricultural productivity:

1. It increased the Irrigation Potential created in the country, thereby providing assured irrigation facilities to farmers, improving farm resilience to weather vagaries.
2. By making multiple cropping cycles feasible within the same calendar year.
3. By making mixed farming feasible.
4. By making commercial farming of cash crops and “high value, low volume” crops (such as horticultural crops) a feasible option for farmers.
5. Helped in conservation of water.
6. It helped in making green revolution successful because high yielding variety seeds and fertilizers need the irrigation on time.
7. Crop failure became a rare phenomenon.

But command area programme also led to many problems like

1.High cost

2.Limited participation of farmers in designing projects

Conclusion

However, Command Area Development Program in India has had limited success because of its excessive focus on large river valley projects, instead of micro-watersheds. Recent parliamentary standing report shows that less than 10 percent irrigation projects have completed

In order to make efficient implementation of plan it is required to make technology sustainable and make farmers aware of its benefits. A policy shift is necessary in this regard to double the farmers’ income by 2022.