HYDERABAD, April 26: On the completion of the irrigation reforms programme, there would be 100 per cent increase in the crop production in the country, said Dutch Ambassador to Pakistan Dr Marcel Kurpershoek here on Friday.

He was talking to journalists after visiting the Kotri Barrage and the office of the International Reforms Consultants (IRC), part of a Dutch consultancy firm helping the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority to implement its irrigation reforms programme.

At the IRC office, he was briefed by its staff on the goals and progress of the reforms programme.

At the Kotri Barrage, the Dutch ambassador was briefed by the irrigation and power development officials on the operation of the barrage and telemetric water discharge measurement system.

Later, Mr Kurpershoek told journalists that the establishment of Sida was an important beginning in the efficient use of water.

He said that farmers were the best experts of water use therefore the future irrigation system would be managed by them.

He said that the Nara Canal Water Board was the pilot programme of the new irrigation system.

The ambassador said that Pakistan was not the first but the last country to introduce the reforms which would give a boost to its agrarian economy.

He said that the programme would generate more employment and income and reduce expenditure on maintenance by half.

Answering a question about resistance to the new irrigation programme by the growers associations, the Dutch ambassador said that people were conservative by nature and the resistance to any change was natural.

About the huge salaries of the consultants, the IRC team leader, George Hartman, said that they were getting the same salaries which they got in their country.

When asked whether the entire programme would be completed on schedule, Hartman said that no programme of such a gigantic proportion was ever completed on schedule.