Groundwater Irrigation in India: Gains, Costs and Risks

Groundwater has rapidly emerged to occupy a dominant place in India’s agriculture and food security in the recent years. It has become the main source of growth in irrigated area over the past 3 decades, and it now accounts for over 60 percent of the irrigated area in the country. It is estimated that now over 70 percent of India’s food grain production comes from irrigated agriculture, in which groundwater plays a major role. Since the development of groundwater irrigation has not largely been government or policy driven - has happened gradually through highly decentralized private activity, this revolution has gone largely unnoticed.[IIMA W.P. No. 2009-03-08]Groundwater; India; agriculture; food security; production; policy; Irrigation; Surface Water; equity; efficiency; externality; problems; laws and policies