An Assessment of Community-Led Lift Irrigation Systems in Jharkhand, India

The Jharkhand State Livelihoods Promotion Society is rolling-out solar powered communitylift irrigation systems to provide access to irrigation to 23,580 farming families in 13 districts of the state. Thispaper assesses these irrigation systems using data collected from 297 farmers in the command area of 50 randomly selectedirrigation systems. The study also interviewed 457 nonbeneficiaries. Farmers in the command area of theirrigation systems irrigate more land, have higher cropping intensity, are more likely to grow high-value crops, and hadhigher gross value of output in the Rabi (winter) season. The beneficiaries also spend less money on irrigation,especially compared with nonbeneficiaries who use their own or who rent diesel pumps to irrigate their fields. Althoughthe solar powered community lift irrigation systems offer multiple benefits, they remain severely underutilized. Themedian hours of operation of the 50 sampled irrigation systems was less than 100 hours per year, and the averageoperating time was 192 hours per year. Solar irrigation systems cannot be economically viable with low levels ofcapacity utilization, indicating that incentives are needed for system managers to increase utilization, gross irrigatedarea, and irrigation surplus.