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1 Buisson, Marie-Charlotte; Balasubramanya, Soumya; Stifel, D.. 2021. Electric pumps, groundwater, agriculture and water buyers: evidence from West Bengal. Journal of Development Studies, 57(11):1893-1911. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2021.1906862]
Pumps ; Electricity ; Groundwater ; Agricultural production ; Rice ; Water market ; Irrigation practices ; Cropping patterns ; Crop yield ; Farmers ; Monsoons ; Energy ; Policies / India / West Bengal
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050372)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00220388.2021.1906862
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050372.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050372.pdf
(2.41 MB) (2.41 MB)
Irrigation with electric pumps is cheaper than with diesel pumps in West Bengal where electricity and diesel are unsubsidised, and where pump owners typically irrigate their winter rice crop and often sell water to farmers who do not own pumps. Using purposefully selected primary data, we examine whether electric-pump owners have greater water access and rice production during the monsoon and winter seasons compared to diesel-pump owners and water buyers. We also examine whether electric pump-owners provide greater access to irrigation services through water sales. We find that electric-pump ownership increased agricultural outputs both at the extensive and intensive margins in both seasons. The number of clients served by electric-pump owners was greater than those served by diesel-pump owners, but there was only a small difference in total irrigated areas, suggesting that electric-pump owners sell water to farmers with smaller land holdings. The evidence indicates that in an environment where inadequate irrigation has been one of the factors constraining agriculture, electric pumps have the potential to support agricultural growth and generate pro-poor side effects.
2 Balasubramanya, S.; Buisson, Marie-Charlotte; Mitra, Archisman; Stifel, D.. 2023. Price, credit or ambiguity? Increasing small-scale irrigation in Ethiopia. World Development, 163:106149. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.106149]
Small-scale irrigation ; Smallholders ; Farmer-led irrigation ; Groundwater irrigation ; Pumps ; Prices ; Credit ; Boreholes ; Water drilling ; Taxes ; Loans / Africa South of Sahara / Ethiopia / Amhara / Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region (SNNPR)
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051554)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X22003394/pdfft?md5=77d5c3eab1cf338b2c855edce5cc7cc1&pid=1-s2.0-S0305750X22003394-main.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051554.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051554.pdf
(1.75 MB) (1.75 MB)
Governments in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are keen to expand irrigation to improve food security and are placing particular emphasis on adoption and use of smallholder private groundwater irrigation. Yet private irrigation is a multi-stage technology, the adoption of which is affected by fiscal support and extension services offered on different investment stages but also by uncertainties around actions that need to be undertaken in these stages. Groundwater-based irrigation in Ethiopia presents a case where policy has focused on fiscally easing the purchase of pumps while considerable ambiguity (unquantifiable uncertainty) exists around the outcomes of drilling boreholes (reaching water). In this paper, we examine farmers’ willingness to adopt smallholder private irrigation packages in response to lower pump prices following tax breaks, loan availability, and reduction in ambiguities related to borehole drilling, using a discrete choice experiment (DCE) in two districts of Ethiopia. The results indicate that the provision of loans and reduction in ambiguities related to well drilling have the greatest effect on the probability of farmers adopting irrigation packages. Lowering pump prices has the smallest effect. Pump-type has a small effect, with energized pumps preferred over manual ones. In exploring heterogeneity in preferences, we find that farmers without irrigated plots and those with greater market access have a greater preference for the provision of loans, while those with greater market access also have greater preferences for reductions in well drilling ambiguities. The results of this choice experiment suggest that reducing ambiguities around well drilling (initial investments) is an essential and cost-effective step toward expanding groundwater-based irrigation in Ethiopia.
3 Balasubramanya, S.; Garrick, D.; Brozovic, N.; Ringler, C.; Zaveri, E.; Rodella, A.-S.; Buisson, Marie-Charlotte; Schmitter, Petra; Durga, Neha; Kishore, A.; Minh, Thai Thi; Kafle, K.; Stifel, D.; Balasubramanya, S.; Chandra, A.; Hope, L. 2024. Risks from solar-powered groundwater irrigation. Science, 383(6680):256-258. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adi9497]
Groundwater irrigation ; Solar powered irrigation systems ; Pumps ; Emission reduction ; Water use ; Carbon / India
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H052565)
(1.39 MB)
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