Farm power policies and groundwater markets contrasting Gujarat with West Bengal (1990–2015)

With India emerging as the world’s largest groundwater irrigator, marginal farmers and tenants in many parts have come to depend on informal water markets for irrigation. Power subsidies have grown these markets and made them pro-poor, but are also responsible for groundwater depletion, and for fina...

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Autores principales: Shah, Tushaar, Chowdhury, S.D.
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/83489
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author Shah, Tushaar
Chowdhury, S.D.
author_browse Chowdhury, S.D.
Shah, Tushaar
author_facet Shah, Tushaar
Chowdhury, S.D.
author_sort Shah, Tushaar
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description With India emerging as the world’s largest groundwater irrigator, marginal farmers and tenants in many parts have come to depend on informal water markets for irrigation. Power subsidies have grown these markets and made them pro-poor, but are also responsible for groundwater depletion, and for financial troubles of electricity distribution companies of India or DISCOMs. Gujarat has successfully reduced subsidies by rationing farm power supply, and West Bengal has done so by charging farmers commercial power tariff on metered consumption. Subsidy reforms have hit poor farmers and tenants hard in both the states. Gujarat has tried to support the poor, with some success, by prioritising them in allocating new tube well connections. We argue that West Bengal too can support its poor by tweaking its farm power pricing formula to turn a sellers’ water market into a buyers’ one.
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spelling CGSpace834892023-06-08T19:53:32Z Farm power policies and groundwater markets contrasting Gujarat with West Bengal (1990–2015) Shah, Tushaar Chowdhury, S.D. groundwater farm planning market policy farmer participation tenant farmers water market subsidies electricity supplies tube wells rice pumps With India emerging as the world’s largest groundwater irrigator, marginal farmers and tenants in many parts have come to depend on informal water markets for irrigation. Power subsidies have grown these markets and made them pro-poor, but are also responsible for groundwater depletion, and for financial troubles of electricity distribution companies of India or DISCOMs. Gujarat has successfully reduced subsidies by rationing farm power supply, and West Bengal has done so by charging farmers commercial power tariff on metered consumption. Subsidy reforms have hit poor farmers and tenants hard in both the states. Gujarat has tried to support the poor, with some success, by prioritising them in allocating new tube well connections. We argue that West Bengal too can support its poor by tweaking its farm power pricing formula to turn a sellers’ water market into a buyers’ one. 2017 2017-09-13T05:31:05Z 2017-09-13T05:31:05Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/83489 en Open Access Shah, Tushaar; Chowdhury, S. D. 2017. Farm power policies and groundwater markets contrasting Gujarat with West Bengal (1990–2015) Economic and Political Weekly, 52(25&26):39-47.
spellingShingle groundwater
farm planning
market policy
farmer participation
tenant farmers
water market
subsidies
electricity supplies
tube wells
rice
pumps
Shah, Tushaar
Chowdhury, S.D.
Farm power policies and groundwater markets contrasting Gujarat with West Bengal (1990–2015)
title Farm power policies and groundwater markets contrasting Gujarat with West Bengal (1990–2015)
title_full Farm power policies and groundwater markets contrasting Gujarat with West Bengal (1990–2015)
title_fullStr Farm power policies and groundwater markets contrasting Gujarat with West Bengal (1990–2015)
title_full_unstemmed Farm power policies and groundwater markets contrasting Gujarat with West Bengal (1990–2015)
title_short Farm power policies and groundwater markets contrasting Gujarat with West Bengal (1990–2015)
title_sort farm power policies and groundwater markets contrasting gujarat with west bengal 1990 2015
topic groundwater
farm planning
market policy
farmer participation
tenant farmers
water market
subsidies
electricity supplies
tube wells
rice
pumps
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/83489
work_keys_str_mv AT shahtushaar farmpowerpoliciesandgroundwatermarketscontrastinggujaratwithwestbengal19902015
AT chowdhurysd farmpowerpoliciesandgroundwatermarketscontrastinggujaratwithwestbengal19902015