Somewhat better results have been achieved in the expansion of irrigation. In the 1965-70 period the irrigable area increased at an annual average of 44,000 acres from 2.25 million to 2.47 million acres, or 21 percent of the cultivated land. Under the Sixth Five-Year Plan (1971-75) 494,000 acres are to be added to the irrigable area, raising the total irrigable acreage to 26 percent of the cultivated land. During the first two years of the plan period 124,000 acres were equipped for irrigation, and 80,000 acres were to be made irrigable in 1973. In order to complete the five-year irrigation program on schedule, therefore, it would be necessary to bring under irrigation 270,000 acres in the last two years of the plan period--a task not likely to be accomplished in the light of past experience and of available resources. Only about 70 percent of the irrigable acreage was actually irrigated in the 1965-70 period. Although the irrigated area of 1.7 million acres in 1970 represented an increase of 21 percent of the acreage irrigated in 1965, it was 17 percent smaller than the acreage irrigated in 1968. Primitive gravity irrigation is practiced on about nine-tenths of the irrigated area. Water is distributed over the fields from unlined earthen canals by means of furrows dug with a hoe. The work entails hard manual labor, and a single worker can handle only about 1.25 to 2.5 acres per day. The timing of the water application and the quantity of water used are not properly adjusted to the needs of the various crops, so that the increase in yields is only half as great as that obtained under optimum conditions, and about half the water is wasted. The network of irrigation ditches also impedes mechanical cultivation of the fields. Improper irrigation and drainage techniques have raised the groundwater level excessively in several districts and have caused various degrees of soil salinization in areas totaling more than 39,000 acres. The five-year plan program for new irrigated areas calls for the construction of stationary sprinkler systems over 25,000 acres; 469,000 acres are to be provided with portable sprinkler systems. Reconstruction and modernization of existing basic facilities are to be limited to the lining of canals. The ultimate longer term goal is to establish fully automated stationary sprinkler systems in most irrigated districts. The main problems in carrying out the irrigation program, in the view of an irrigation authority official, are posed by the paucity of investment funds allotted for this purpose and the contradictory nature of some of the program's aims. Additional difficulties are presented by the shortage of irrigation pipes and materials for their fabrication, inadequate experience in the manufacture of advanced irrigation equipment, and the lack of facilities for experimentation and testing. Cropping Pattern