Innovations in the Use and Management of Groundwater in Hard Rock Regions in India

Abstract

"Empirical evidence emanating from many parts of India indicates that large farmers due to their advantageous resource position and enjoying bureaucratic-political influence have appropriated the gains of lift irrigation disproportionately more than the small farmers. In this situation the use and management of groundwater - a CPR -calls forth, especially in water-scarce hard rock regions, for innovative institutional arrangements to assure an improvement in access to small farmers. For such innovative institutional arrangements to emerge and succeed, appropriate policy prescriptions are required on several fronts like groundwater legislation, land reforms, pricing of water, pricing of electricity and so on. The paper examines critically some of these innovative experiments in hardrock regions in India."