This region has a long history of irrigation canals. In the mid 14th century, Firoz Shah Tughluq dug inundated canals in India for the spread of colonization. They were laid out in this area up to the middle of the 19th century. These canals were seasonal and supplied water to the fields in the summer when the donor rivers were in flood, so that they were beneficial for kharif crops. The rabi crops took advantage of the moisture left in the land from summer flooding. As a consequence, the emphasis was on the cultivation of kharif crops.
Inundated canals can only irrigate flood plains where the land is sufficiently level and slopes downward from the river bank. That is why the main network of inundation canals was developed in Sindh and is southern punjab, near Panjnad. A limited number of inundatio canals took off from the Upper Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej Rivers. The bar uplands were not served by inundation canals, as they could not rise up the 5 to 7 meter high bluffs separating the flood plains and the bar uplands. The bar uplands were only irrigated and heavily colonized after the introduction of perennial canals to the region.