Your search found 3 records
1 Bhat, G. K.; Revi, A. 1995. Water crisis in earthquake-affected areas of Marathwada. Economic and Political Weekly, 30(29):1826-1830.
Water scarcity ; Natural disasters ; Rehabilitation ; Water demand ; Drought ; Groundwater extraction ; Pumps ; Sugarcane ; Water resources development ; Wells ; Government ; Policy ; Water supply / India / Maharashtra / Marathwada
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: P 3974 Record No: H017121)
2 Pande, S.; Savenije, H. H. G. 2016. A sociohydrological model for smallholder farmers in Maharashtra, India. Water Resources Research, 52(3):1923-1947. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/2015WR017841]
Smallholders ; Farmers ; Social aspects ; Hydrology ; Models ; Water storage ; Capital allocation ; Income ; Living standards ; Labour costs ; Remuneration ; Expenditure ; Agricultural prices ; Cotton ; Sugarcane ; Soil fertility ; Fertilizer application ; Irrigation ; Livestock production ; Grasslands ; Fodder / India / Maharashtra / Marathwada
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H047760)
(1.81 MB)
We present a sociohydrological model that can help us to better understand the system dynamics of a smallholder farmer. It couples the dynamics of the six main assets of a typical smallholder farmer: water storage capacity, capital, livestock, soil fertility, grazing access, and labor. The hydroclimatic variability, which is a main driver and source of uncertainty of the smallholder system, is accounted for at subannual scale. The model incorporates rule-based adaptation mechanisms of smallholders (for example, adjusting expenditures on food and fertilizers and selling livestocks) when farmers face adverse sociohydrological conditions, such as low annual rainfall, occurrence of dry spells, or variability of input or commodity prices. We have applied the model to analyze the sociohydrology of a cash crop producing smallholder in Maharashtra, India, in a semisynthetic case study setting. Of late, this region has witnessed many suicides of farmers who could not extricate themselves out of the debt trap. These farmers lacked irrigation and were susceptible to fluctuating commodity prices and climatic variability. We studied the sensitivity of a smallholder’s capital, an indicator of smallholder well-being, to two types of cash crops (cotton and sugarcane), water storage capacity, availability of irrigation, initial capital that a smallholder starts with, prevalent wage rates, and access to grazing. We found that (i) smallholders with low water storage capacities and no irrigation are most susceptible to distress, (ii) a smallholder’s well-being is low at low wage rates, (iii) wage rate is more important than absolution of debt, (iv) well-being is sensitive to water storage capacity up to a certain level, and (v) well-being increases with increasing area available for livestock grazing. Our results indicate that government intervention to absolve the debt of farmers or to invest in local storage to buffer rainfall variability may not be enough. In addition, alternative sources of income may need to be provided, for instance by ensuring minimum wages or by providing more access to grazing areas.
3 Hatch, N. R.; Daniel, D.; Pande, S. 2022. Behavioral and socio-economic factors controlling irrigation adoption in Maharashtra, India. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 67(6):847-857. (Special issue: Advancing Socio-Hydrology) [doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2022.2058877]
Irrigation ; Adoption ; Socioeconomic aspects ; Psychological factors ; Farmers' attitudes ; Norms ; Risk ; Water scarcity ; Modelling / India / Maharashtra / Vidarbha / Marathwada / Nagpur / Wardha / Amaravati / Yavatmal
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051452)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02626667.2022.2058877
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051452.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051452.pdf
(3.48 MB) (3.48 MB)
Psychological frameworks are rarely used to understand irrigation adoption behaviour in developing countries. A Bayesian belief network (BBN) model was developed that integrated socio-economic characteristics and psychological factors to understand farmer behaviours with respect to irrigation practices in four districts of Maharashtra, India. Strong norms, risk perceptions of water scarcity, and attitude play roles in the adoption of irrigation technology and practices. Critically, it was found that no one factor can explain adoption behaviour; rather, an ensemble of factors is needed to understand farmer behaviour. A farmer who is highly educated, middle-aged, and moderately wealthy with a significant level of family help and an open well as their main water source, while receiving low promotional information related to water scarcity and irrigation adoption, is most likely to adopt irrigation technology. The application of the BBN in this study enables stakeholders and policymakers to better understand the linkages between different factors and behaviour.
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