Irrigation Statistics in West Bengal-1

West Bengal lacks an integrated system of collection of data on irrigation. Collection of data on different types of irrigation systems in the state has been left to different agencies. These agencies are not geared to systematic collection of statistics and the data provided by them are not regular and are often inconsistent. As a result, no reliable statistics exist that could be used to identify patterns of irrigation at the state-level - leave aside doing such exercises at district, block or village levels - with a level of accuracy that is possible for some of the other states. This paper provides an overview of the different sources of data on irrigation in West Bengal and discusses the nature of the data available from each source.