Costs of diesel pump irrigation systems in the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains: What options exist for efficiency gains?

Timothy Foster, Roshan Adhikari, Anton Urfels, Subash Adhikari, Timothy J. Krupnik, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center and International Rice Research Institute

No 15, CSISA project notes from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Abstract: Groundwater irrigation plays a critical role in supporting food security, rural livelihoods and economic development in South Asia. Yet, large disparities in groundwater access and use remain across the region. In the Western Indo-Gangetic Plains (WIGP) of India and Pakistan, subsidized rural electrification and fuel for groundwater pumping has enabled significant growth in agricultural productivity over recent decades (Shah 2007). In many areas, groundwater development has however also contributed to over-extraction and aquifer depletion, especially in the WIGP (MacDonald et al. 2016; Mukherjee et el., 2017). In contrast, groundwater resources in the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains (EIGP) of Nepal and eastern India remain underexploited; current aggregated rates and areas of irrigation also appear to be only a fraction of estimated development potential (Saha et al., 2016). This limits farmers’ ability to grow crops outside the monsoon season, or to manage risks posed by rainfall variability and dry spells within the monsoon – both of which contribute to low productivity and rural poverty.

Keywords: costs; irrigation systems; efficiency; monsoon climate; irrigation rates; groundwater; land ownership; irrigation; diesel engines; agricultural productivity; India; Pakistan; Nepal; Southern Asia; Asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146663

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fpr:csispn:15

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CSISA project notes from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().