Improving groundwater management for Indian agriculture: Assessing tradeoffs across policy instruments

Despite efforts to reform management of water resources, groundwater levels have continued to decline steadily in key aquifers across India, leading to serious environmental concerns and impacts. While policy makers have looked to efforts aimed at improving the efficiency of field-level irrigation a...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Msangi, Siwa, Cline, Sarah Ann
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: World Scientific Publishing 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147823
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author Msangi, Siwa
Cline, Sarah Ann
author_browse Cline, Sarah Ann
Msangi, Siwa
author_facet Msangi, Siwa
Cline, Sarah Ann
author_sort Msangi, Siwa
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Despite efforts to reform management of water resources, groundwater levels have continued to decline steadily in key aquifers across India, leading to serious environmental concerns and impacts. While policy makers have looked to efforts aimed at improving the efficiency of field-level irrigation and strengthening ownership and property rights in local resource management, hydrologists have asserted that more direct control of consumptive use patterns of water is needed. In this paper, we illustrate the divergence between current groundwater usage patterns and an optimal path, in which the groundwater levels are stabilized with better demand-side management. The paper assesses the tradeoffs embedded in alternative policy instruments that are aimed at modifying the groundwater pumping behavior of agricultural water users. The challenges of regulating smallholder agricultural water users are shown to be relevant in determining which instrument might have the best chance of slowing the depletion of groundwater resources in the hard-rock aquifers of India, and promoting the long-run sustainability of this critical natural resource.
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spelling CGSpace1478232025-12-08T10:29:22Z Improving groundwater management for Indian agriculture: Assessing tradeoffs across policy instruments Msangi, Siwa Cline, Sarah Ann water management groundwater water policies sustainability agriculture natural resources management smallholders water use Despite efforts to reform management of water resources, groundwater levels have continued to decline steadily in key aquifers across India, leading to serious environmental concerns and impacts. While policy makers have looked to efforts aimed at improving the efficiency of field-level irrigation and strengthening ownership and property rights in local resource management, hydrologists have asserted that more direct control of consumptive use patterns of water is needed. In this paper, we illustrate the divergence between current groundwater usage patterns and an optimal path, in which the groundwater levels are stabilized with better demand-side management. The paper assesses the tradeoffs embedded in alternative policy instruments that are aimed at modifying the groundwater pumping behavior of agricultural water users. The challenges of regulating smallholder agricultural water users are shown to be relevant in determining which instrument might have the best chance of slowing the depletion of groundwater resources in the hard-rock aquifers of India, and promoting the long-run sustainability of this critical natural resource. 2016-10-05 2024-06-21T09:23:22Z 2024-06-21T09:23:22Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147823 en World Scientific Publishing Msangi, Siwa and Cline, Sarah Ann. 2016. Improving groundwater management for Indian agriculture: Assessing tradeoffs across policy instruments. Water Economics and Policy 2(3): 1-33. https://doi.org/10.1142/S2382624X16500272
spellingShingle water management
groundwater
water policies
sustainability
agriculture
natural resources management
smallholders
water use
Msangi, Siwa
Cline, Sarah Ann
Improving groundwater management for Indian agriculture: Assessing tradeoffs across policy instruments
title Improving groundwater management for Indian agriculture: Assessing tradeoffs across policy instruments
title_full Improving groundwater management for Indian agriculture: Assessing tradeoffs across policy instruments
title_fullStr Improving groundwater management for Indian agriculture: Assessing tradeoffs across policy instruments
title_full_unstemmed Improving groundwater management for Indian agriculture: Assessing tradeoffs across policy instruments
title_short Improving groundwater management for Indian agriculture: Assessing tradeoffs across policy instruments
title_sort improving groundwater management for indian agriculture assessing tradeoffs across policy instruments
topic water management
groundwater
water policies
sustainability
agriculture
natural resources management
smallholders
water use
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147823
work_keys_str_mv AT msangisiwa improvinggroundwatermanagementforindianagricultureassessingtradeoffsacrosspolicyinstruments
AT clinesarahann improvinggroundwatermanagementforindianagricultureassessingtradeoffsacrosspolicyinstruments