Does increased access to groundwater irrigation through electricity reforms affect agricultural and groundwater outcomes?

Does increased access to groundwater irrigation through electricity reforms affect agricultural and groundwater outcomes? PDF Author: Mukherji, Aditi
Publisher: IWMI
ISBN:
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Does increased access to groundwater irrigation through electricity reforms affect agricultural and groundwater outcomes?

Does increased access to groundwater irrigation through electricity reforms affect agricultural and groundwater outcomes? PDF Author: Mukherji, Aditi
Publisher: IWMI
ISBN:
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Book Description


Lappland-Express

Lappland-Express PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 5

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Essays on Adaptation Responses to Climate Variability in India

Essays on Adaptation Responses to Climate Variability in India PDF Author: Esha Zaveri
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Studying interactions between human and natural systems presents a unique opportunity for multidisciplinary and policy-relevant research. This dissertation consists of three chapters that examine how changes in water access, availability and use influence agricultural adaptation, and labor mobility in rural India. Since an increasingly variable future climate will amplify stresses on the water cycle, with large and uneven consequences, the findings from these chapters have important implications for both environmental and developmental policies that seek to promote long-run sustainability. The first chapter assesses the challenges of groundwater depletion, surface water stress, and food security that India is likely to face with future climate change. Different from previous literature in this area, it explicitly accounts for both water demand and supply by combining an econometric model of irrigation decision-making with a process based hydrology model. The results highlight significant spatial and regional heterogeneity in future changes in groundwater demand and supply. A complete loss of non-renewable groundwater irrigation could reduce annual crop production by as much as 25 percent, directly affecting the caloric intake of more than 170 million people. Results also indicate that Indias large proposed river linking scheme is unlikely to alleviate groundwater stress nationally without substantial investments in reservoir storage capacity. The second chapter examines how the introduction of high yield variety of seeds in the mid-1960s (Green Revolution) and the resulting path dependency of groundwater development underlies the results we see in chapter one. The results suggest that increasing access to more reliable, yet largely unsustainable sources of groundwater, have equipped farmers with the ability to withstand monsoonal fluctuations in the irrigation-intensive dry season. The results also indicate that initial groundwater endowments have influenced the types of irrigation infrastructure and capacities that have developed in India as a result of the Green Revolution, with lasting effects on the adaptability of agriculture to weather shocks. The third chapter investigates how irrigation water access, availability and use also have wider spillover effects on the agrarian labor economy. Results show that migration decisions respond to agricultural opportunity costs associated with irrigation and that access to assured irrigation from deep tubewells determines the relative benefits of migration. Further, higher electricity provision that facilitates groundwater extraction from greater depths increases the agricultural opportunity cost of rural households and reduces the short-term migration of its members. From a policy perceptive, shutting down access to groundwater will have significant effects on temporary labor mobility.

Groundwater Irrigation

Groundwater Irrigation PDF Author: Wendell Holmes
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Groundwater
Languages : en
Pages : 20

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Irrigation impacts on income inequality and poverty alleviation: Policy issues and options for improved management of irrigation systems

Irrigation impacts on income inequality and poverty alleviation: Policy issues and options for improved management of irrigation systems PDF Author: Madhusudan Bhattarai
Publisher: IWMI
ISBN: 9290904763
Category : Irrigation
Languages : en
Pages : 37

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Book Description
This study explores the conceptual and policy issues relating to the impact that irrigation has on crop production, farm income, inequities in income distribution and poverty alleviation. It also focuses, specifically, on poverty issues associated with head-tail water distribution inequity in an irrigation system.

Informing Water Policies in South Asia

Informing Water Policies in South Asia PDF Author: Anjal Prakash
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317560116
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
This book analyzes water policies in South Asia from the perspective of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). It seeks to address the problems of water scarcity, conflict and pollution resulting from the gross mismanagement and over-exploitation of this finite resource. Highlighting the need for IWRM in mitigating abuse and ensuring sustainable use, it discusses issues relating to groundwater management; inter-state water conflicts; peri-urban water use; local traditional water management practices; coordination between water users and uses; and water integration at the grassroots level. With case studies from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal, the innovative, painstaking and transnational researches presented in the volume deal with questions of equity, gender, sustainability, and democratic governance in water policy interventions. It will interest researchers and students of development studies, environmental studies, natural resource management, water governance, and public administration, as also water sector professionals, policymakers, civil society activists and governmental and nongovernmental organizations.

Energy-irrigation Nexus in South Asia

Energy-irrigation Nexus in South Asia PDF Author: Tushaar Shah
Publisher: IWMI
ISBN: 9290905182
Category : Irrigation efficiency
Languages : en
Pages : 37

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Book Description
Water use efficiency; groundwater irrigation; tubewells; sustainability; irrigated farming; households; farmers; irrigation systems; energy consumption; pumps; food security; water demend; electricity supplies.

Essays on the Economics of Groundwater Depletion and Management in Irrigated Agriculture

Essays on the Economics of Groundwater Depletion and Management in Irrigated Agriculture PDF Author: Gabriela Perez-Quesada
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The depletion of groundwater stocks reduces the flow of economic value and the production of goods from the resource. This dissertation quantifies these effects in the context of the High Plains Aquifer in the central US. One particular challenge in estimating these effects that we overcome is that feedback effects from irrigation behavior affect resource conditions, which creates an endogeneity concern. We also provide new insights on the potential of collective efforts by irrigators to manage the resource. We study how heterogeneity in resource and user characteristics affect their individuals' willingness to support efforts to collectively reduce water use. The first chapter estimates how changes in groundwater stocks affect the returns to agricultural land. We avoid bias from feedback effects by exploiting hydrologic variation in pre-development saturated thickness that was determined by natural processes in previous geological eras. Simulation results reveal that the average annual present value of returns to land are expected to decrease in the High Plains region by $120.6 million in 2050, and by $250.5 million in 2100. The most severe decreases in returns to land are expected to occur in Texas, Kansas, and Colorado. When the initial saturated thickness is less than 70 feet, most of the economic impact (63%) of a decrease in the stock of groundwater occurs through an adjustment in irrigated acreage (extensive margin), while 37% occurs through reduced irrigated rental rates (intensive margin). When saturated thickness is larger, nearly all of the response is at the extensive margin. The second chapter examines how observed differences in the stock of groundwater affect corn production. To account for the endogeneity of groundwater stock, we exploit variation in current saturated thickness due to variation in pre-development saturated thickness. Simulation results reveal that the annual production of corn would decrease by 48.1 million bushels in the north portion of the High Plains Aquifer due to a uniform 10 ft decrease in saturated thickness, whereas the annual production of corn would decrease by 15.7 million bushels in the south. Further, we find that when initial saturated thickness is less than 70 ft, most of the impact on corn production of a decrease in the stock of groundwater occurs through an adjustment in irrigated acres in both the north and the south. When saturated thickness is larger than 70 ft, then the adjustment is mostly through a change in cropping patterns on irrigated land in the south but still through irrigated acres in the north. The third chapter uses unique data obtained from consequential stated preference surveys in Kansas to explore the factors that influence farmers preferred reductions in groundwater use through a water conservation program implemented by a Groundwater Management District. Our results reveal that farmers located in areas where the aquifer is more depleted support larger reductions in groundwater use. But we also find that characteristics of the users matter as much or more than the status of the aquifer in determining support. Opposition to reductions in water use are strongest among farmers who strongly agree that water rights are a private property, landlords and those who irrigate a larger proportion of their farm. Further, we evaluate farmers' preferences for the methods of assigning water allocations. We find that none of the options are preferred by a majority of farmers and there is no clear evidence that aquifer characteristics or observed farmer characteristics are the key factors affecting the probability that a farmer ranks a method as the best option. This makes it difficult for groundwater managers to identify which method is more likely to be considered fair by farmers. Our results are informative for managers of water throughout Kansas, the High Plains and other regions where conserving water resources is a high priority and localized and stakeholder-driven conservation plans could be a solution.

In the Dark

In the Dark PDF Author: Fan Zhang
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464812896
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Electricity shortages are among the biggest barriers to South Asia’s development. Some 255 million people—more than a quarter of the world’s off-grid population—live in South Asia, and millions of households and firms that are connected experience frequent and long hours of blackouts. Inefficiencies originating in every link of the electricity supply chain contribute significantly to the power deficit. Three types of distortions lead to most of the inefficiencies: institutional distortions caused by state ownership and weak governance; regulatory distortions resulting from price regulation, subsidies, and cross-subsidies; and social distortions (externalities) causing excessive environmental and health damages from energy use. Using a common analytical framework and covering all stages of power supply, In the Dark identifies and estimates how policy-induced distortions have affected South Asian economies. The book introduces two innovations. First, it goes beyond fiscal costs, evaluating the impact of distortions from a welfare perspective by measuring the impact on consumer wellbeing, producer surplus, and environmental costs. And second, the book adopts a broader definition of the sector that covers the entire power supply chain, including upstream fuel supply and downstream access and reliability. The book finds that the full cost of distortions in the power sector is far greater than previously estimated based on fiscal cost alone: The estimated total economic cost is 4†“7 percent of the gross domestic product in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Some of the largest costs are upstream and downstream. Few other reforms could quickly yield the huge economic gains that power sector reform would produce. By expanding access to electricity and improving the quality of supply, power sector reform would also directly benefit poor households. The highest payoffs are likely to come from institutional reforms, expansion of reliable access, and the appropriate pricing of carbon and local air pollution emissions.

Rethinking the Approach to Groundwater and Food Security

Rethinking the Approach to Groundwater and Food Security PDF Author: Marcus Moench
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
ISBN: 9789251049044
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 68

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Book Description
This study attempts to re-frame the current thinking on groundwater development and the implications for food security. Groundwater is important in agriculture as it provides a reliable fallback when rainfeeding fails. It is therefore instrumental in managing risk and optimizing food production. However accessing groundwater has become habit and turned to dependency. Resources limits on many key aquifers have been exceeded and competition for groundwater has become intense. This study highlights the role of adaptive strategies in dealing with aquifer management and indicates directions of research and management.