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This paper proposes scenarios to achieve more crop per drop and irrigation for all in water-scarce irrigation systems, with a particular reference to India. It uses economic water productivity (EWP) and water cost curve for EWP as tools to reallocate irrigation consumptive water use (CWU) and identify economically viable cropping patterns. Assessed in the water-scarce Sina irrigation system in Maharashtra, India, the method shows that drought-tolerant annual crops such as fruits and/or fodder should be the preferred option in irrigated cropping patterns. Cropping patterns with orchard or fodder as permanent fixtures will provide sustainable income in low rainfall years. Orchards in combination with other crops will increase EWP and value of output in moderate to good rainfall years. Governments should create an enabling environment for conjunctive water use and allocation of CWU to achieve a gradual shift to high-value annual/perennial crops as permanent fixtures in cropping patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As water is a state subject in India, an enormous variation of irrigation water pricing across the states is noticed. Revenue collection under irrigation water charges of the states is not encouraging. The present paper reviews the structures of water pricing mechanism in different states of India and suggests a way to achieve sustainable water resources management in India. Various reports, water policy documents, and major recommendations of the irrigation commission were reviewed and analyzed. It was observed that low revenue collection is mainly due to the low rate of water taxes, no periodic revision, and flaws in the current revenue collection mechanism across the states. The water regulatory authority should be made a statutory body to manage various water uses and their fair pricing. A volumetric pricing system can be implemented in wells and tube-well-irrigated areas and for surface irrigation, and this requires considerable investment in irrigation water supply infrastructure and development of operational plans. Until a well-developed volumetric system comes into practice, the current system of revenue assessment and collection must be rationalized and simplified. An appropriate power tariff policy for rural areas and inclusion of the irrigation sector in a ground water conservation fee is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The general perception of canal irrigation systems in India is one of built infrastructure with low service performance. This paper presents an analytical framework, applied to the Sina medium irrigation system in Maharashtra state of India, to study the performance of an expandedwater influence zone (WIZ) including a buffer zone outside the canal command area (CCA) influenced by the irrigation system'swater resources. The framework used satellite-based estimates of land-use and cropping patterns. The results indicate that there is hardly any gap between the irrigation potential created (IPC) and the irrigation potential utilized (IPU) in the CCA. The fraction of consumptive water use (CWU) of irrigation is low in the CCA, but almost one in theWIZ, due to the reuse of return flows in the WIZ. Future investments should focus on increasing economic water productivity ($/m³) in order to enhance the resilience of the farming community in theWIZ, which is frequently affected by water scarcity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the dynamic interface of state-water users' relationships in large-scale surface irrigation in India and China, to inquire to what extent the issues encountered in large-scale irrigation management and governance are independent of regime characteristics. Though operating in very different overall political regimes, China and India exhibit strong similarities in the way a central state has attempted to relate with local water users, in the types of policy instruments deployed to shape that relationship, and in the problems encountered. Both China and India have a long history of state involvement in irrigation management. Both saw massive expansion after the late 1940s. The state then tried to extend its control in response to 'underutilisation' of the created infrastructure, revenue shortfalls and perceived inefficiencies and yield gaps. In recent decades the policy approaches have, at least rhetorically, emphasised water users' self-management and governance, including financial self-management/cost recovery. In both countries the instrument for this has been Water User Associations. Results have been mixed, to say the least, on all counts. Larger institutional and policy characteristics adhering to the problematic of the state-user interface subvert stated reform objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes and evaluates the warabandi system of irrigation prevalent in NorthWest India and Pakistan. It argues that warabandi needs to be understood as a composite sociotechnical system comprising a physical infrastructure and a corresponding institutional arrangement for rationing and sharing water. This has implications for efforts at replicating the system in other parts of the region. An understanding of these features is also essential in assessing the prospects and potential for irrigation management reform in the region. The paper concludes by identifying some challenges and opportunities for management reform in the warabandi system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater emerged as a major source of irrigation in India during the mid-1970s. However, a large expansion in well irrigation due to a massive rural electrification programme, government policies of promoting private tube well construction and large subsidies on electricity for agricultural use resulted in groundwater over-abstraction in many semi-arid and arid regions of India. In addition, most of the direct and indirect measures to regulate groundwater use have met with little success and have been largely ineffective in arresting groundwater over-exploitation. This paper reviews the institutional and market-based instruments that are now being advocated by scholars and practitioners as potential instruments for sustainable groundwater use. The review mainly focuses on research that examined the viability and impacts of establishing private and tradable water rights in groundwater and pro rata pricing of electricity for irrigation use as instruments to arrest the problems of groundwater over-exploitation in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of the replacement of traditional communal irrigation systems called tanks by modern irrigation systems, that is, private wells with pumps, using a village and household data set collected in Tamil Nadu, India. Our statistical analyses find that, once the tanks deteriorate, the rice yield of farmers who have no access to wells and thus rely solely on traditional irrigation systems will decrease, whereas those of farmers with well access will not be affected. Since compensation for yield loss by income diversification is difficult, the reduction of income is so large that poverty among farmers without well access increases. Our analyses also find that, even among farmers with well access, the dissemination of private wells results in no significant increase in net return or profit of rice cultivation, presumably because the overexploitation of groundwater increases the cost of irrigation and cancels out the well users' high revenue from high yield. In this way, the replacement process creates a double tragedy: increased poverty among farmers without well access and overexploitation and profit reduction among farmers with well access. Policy options to avoid the tragedy are discussed in the concluding section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]