Improving water productivity in agriculture in developing economies: in search of new avenues

This article shows how the various considerations for analyzing water productivity (WP) differ due to the differences in stakeholder interests, and objectives and units of analysis. Also it identifies some major gaps in WP research and the key drivers of change in WP. The main arguments are: 1] in developing economies like India the objective of WP research should also be to maximize net return per unit of water and aggregate returns for the farmer, rather than merely enhancing “crop per drop”; 2] the determinant for analyzing the impact of efficient irrigation technologies on basin level WP and water saving should be consumed fraction (CF) rather than evapotranspiration; 3] in closed basins, determinants for analyzing basin level WP improvement through water harvesting and conservation should be incremental economic returns & opportunity costs; 4] at the field level, the reliability of irrigation water and changing water allocation could be the key drivers of change in WP that need to be analyzed, whereas at the farm level, changes in the crop mix and farming system could be key drivers of change. In composite farming systems, measures to enhance WP should be based on farm-level analysis involving considerations such as risk taking ability and investment capabilities of the farmer. Finally, the options to enhance WP in agriculture seem to be quite limited, given the larger objective of addressing food security, poverty alleviation, and employment generation concerns in rural areas.