TANK IRRIGATION IN INDIA AND THAILAND: AN EXAMPLE OF COMMON PROPERTY RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

THE MANAGEMENT, PRODUCTION, AND REHABILITATION IN SOUTH INDIAN IRRIGATION TANKS

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

THE TANKS OF SOUTH INDIA (A POTENTIAL FOR FUTURE EXPANSION IN IRRIGATION)

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Irrigation in small holder coconut cultivation in Kerala , India - a financial analysis

Financial analysis of irrigation investments in existing as well as new plantations of coconut was conducted. The annualized capital costs and variable costs were included in the cost of irrigation. The levelised annual cost approach was used to compute the pumping cost. The study was conducted in a mixed cropping system. The effective area under each crop was computed and the allocation of irrgation costs was done accordingly. In all the land types the investments in irrigation was found to be highly feasible financially. The financial ratios were found to be higher in midland categories indicating that compated to the other regions, the midland region had higher potential for investment in irrigation

Rainfall Uncertainty and Drought Proofing Strategies by farmers in Southern India

Droughts are a common occurrence in semi-arid areas and their frequency and intensity is expected to increase further with increasing variability in rainfall distribution. Based on a study of 120 farmers from 4 districts in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, this paper identified the range of measures farmers adopt in response to droughts. Despite significant negative externalities, farmers assign higher priority to drilling new wells rather than investing in water conservation structures or demand management strategies. Among the different strategies followed, adoption of drip irrigation and purchase of tanker water for providing life-saving irrigation to perennial crops yield the highest financial return. Expansion of micro irrigation and reuse of municipal waste water are suggested as drought mitigation strategies

Machine Transplantation: Labour and Water Saving Technology in Paddy Cultivation

publishedVersio

Mainstreaming the adaptations and reducing the vulnerability of the poor due to climate change

Many rural poor people in developing countries depend on agriculture and are highly influenced by climatic change. Hence, sustainable livelihood approaches are used at both policy and project level to initiate new poverty reduction activities and modify existing activities to improve livelihood incomes. Practices relevant to climate change adaptation around the world are wideranging and include development of technology, management, infrastructure, livestock, groundwater, and knowledge. Both structural interventions (such as building flood embankments, dikes, or seawalls or enhancing the natural setting or landscape) and nonstructural interventions (policies, knowledge development, awareness, methods and operating practices, including participatory mechanisms) have helped to reduce the impact of climate change. Further, market-based instruments such as credits and crop insurance were also developed to help poor households in many developing countries to cope with the uncertainties. The uptake of such adaptation practices is lagging, however, but informal institutions are playing a key role as they rely on enforcement methods and are not supported by the government. Mainstreaming adaptation and enhancing adaptive capacity could be increased by encouraging partnerships between informal processes and formal interventions to facilitate adaptation by the poor. The cost of adaptation is also significantly higher in developing countries. Nonetheless, more attention is needed in addressing future climate scenarios through agricultural research and development, irrigation development, infrastructure, and improved irrigation efficiency

Water market in the tank irrigation systems in Tamil Nadu

Continued progress in water resources development in the future will depend upon the utilization of the existing irrigation potential. An irrigation tank is a small reservoir to catch and store water during rainy season and use it for irrigation during dry season. They recharge groundwater, which is not only a major source of drinking water for numerous rural and urban communities, but also serve as a supplementary source for tank water. Due to the loss in tank storage capacities, wells have become an important source of supplementary water. Since farmers initially use tank water for cultivation, the risk associated with getting adequate water, especially late in the season, has encouraged farmers to use wells for supplemental irrigation particularly later in the crop season. Since only a few farmers in the tank command area own wells, and there is a growing demand for well water, the well owners in most cases act like local monopolists. The study was undertaken with the objective to study the water market in the two districts of Tamil Nadu viz., Sivagangai and Coimbatore. Inverse demand function, Output function and Cost function were used to study the monopolistic behavior of water market. The profit maximizing levels of well yield, price of water and hours of pumping are 4.6meters, Rs10 and 8.6 hours, respectively. Well owners maximize profits from water sales when the water level in the well is at about five meters and the price of pumping hour is Rs. 10 and this correspond to about nine hours of pumping per day from the well. Currently they pump only four hours per day and the water level in the well is about eight meter. Under these conditions, well water output can best be increased by having farmers install more wells and increased competition. With more wells, the demand for water from each individual well will fall, resulting in a lower well water price. Therefore there is a need to increase the number of wells in the tank command area in the study area up to threshold level

Farmer participation on water management in the tank Irrigated systems in Tamil Nadu

Farmer participation is found to be a solution to arrest the deterioration of the tank irrigation system which is observed in Tamil Nadu state. The study was undertaken with the specific objective of identifying the determinants of farmer participation on water management and its impact on tank performance. The results of the tobit regression model and a production function analysis reveal that the contribution for farmer participation towards water management of Rs 1.00 at the mean level, ceteris paribus, would increase the rice yield by 2.7 kg/ha in Tank only typology whereas in Tank with wells typology by 2.2 kg/ha of land. The positive impact of farmer participation towards water management on rice yield indicates the importance of water management institutions in sustaining rice productivity and it has important policy implications for water management in tank commands. The water users association in the tank irrigated systems should be strengthened for water management which leads to better performance of the tanks