Groundwater Irrigation in West Bengal after 1990

Abstract

newlineThis thesis discusses and analyses the development of groundwater irrigation in West Bengal newline after 1990. It is based on data from secondary sources and primary data from two villages in newline West Bengal surveyed by the Foundation for Agrarian Studies (FAS) in 2010 and 2015. newline Scholarly studies have shown that, after a prolonged agrarian impasse, agricultural newline production in West Bengal grew at an unprecedented rate in the 1980s, a process in which newline the expansion of groundwater irrigation played an important role. Agricultural production newline growth, however, decelerated from the early 1990s onwards. The thesis studies the newline development of groundwater irrigation in West Bengal in the context of this deceleration. newline The thesis has three main objectives. First, it analyses the pattern of growth of groundwater newline irrigation and inter-district variations from 1990 to 2016. Secondly, it analyses State policies newline that had implications for groundwater irrigation development in West Bengal. Thirdly, based newline on primary data from two villages, this thesis attempts to examine how changes in policies newline affected the ownership of and access to groundwater irrigation and their implications for newline farm households. newline The analysis shows that the development of groundwater irrigation decelerated significantly newline between 1995 and 2011 across districts and in West Bengal as a whole. As a result, overall newline irrigation development stagnated in the State. From 1993 to 2011, policies that regulate the newline use of groundwater and restricted the electrification of tubewells had the effect of slowing newline down the growth of groundwater irrigation in West Bengal. newline After 2011, the Government of West Bengal removed restrictions on groundwater use and newline electrification of tubewells, resulting in a substantial increase in the number of electrified newline tubewells between 2011 and 2016. At the same time, there was a rapid hike in the electricity newline tariff for irrigation. The findings from survey data in Panahar village suggest that the rise in newline power tariffs substantially increased the irrigation cost, particularly for those households newline buying water from private water markets. Consequently, cultivators were discouraged from newline xiicultivating the main irrigated crop, boro paddy, because of increasing costs of cultivation on newline one hand, and not receiving suitable remuneration for paddy on the other. newline In one of the village studies in this thesis, Amarsinghi, two public interventions the newline introduction of electricity in 2007 and installation of a public deep tubewell by government newline in 2008 facilitated the expansion of irrigation and reduced the cost of irrigation newline significantly. However, the analysis suggests that households receiving water from the public newline deep tubewell obtained higher net returns from boro paddy cultivation in 2010 than newline households that purchased private water; the former had higher crop productivity and newline incurred lower costs on irrigation. newline The thesis highlights two important issues related to groundwater irrigation in West Bengal. newline First, there is need for public interventions in groundwater irrigation, particularly to reduce newline the cost of irrigation. Secondly, the thesis in light of West Bengal s experience since mid- newline 1990s to 2011 argues that polices of regulation of groundwater irrigation should be region- newline specific, watershed-specific and sometimes even aquifer-specific