New Directions for Water Management in Indian Agriculture

Despite several decades of large and expensive government programs to expand traditional surface irrigation systems, groundwater irrigated area has continued to grow inexorably—even in command areas of canals and tanks. Groundwater now irrigates more than double the area irrigated by surface water. The alarming drop in groundwater tables in parts of Northwestern and of Peninsular India, and the apparent high public cost of subsidizing the electricity for ground water pumping, has led to calls for limiting groundwater abstraction and further developing surface water systems. This reaction to the ground water challenge misses the point. The debate should not be about whether surface water schemes are preferable to groundwater use, or more generally how to build new infrastructure to increase water supply. Instead, the question is how to deliver a reliable service to improve agricultural productivity. Further surface water development (reservoirs, canals) will not reduce demand for ground water unless it can meet the requirement for “just-in-time†water without discriminating against tail-enders and/or small farmers.