Drivers of groundwater utilization in water-limited rice production systems in Nepal

Anton Urfels, Andrew J. McDonald, Timothy J. Krupnik and Pieter R. van Oel

Water International, 2020, vol. 45, issue 1, 39-59

Abstract: Most rice farmers in Nepal’s Terai region do not fully utilize irrigation during breaks in monsoon rainfall. This leads to yield losses despite abundant groundwater resources and ongoing expansion of diesel pumps and tubewell infrastructure. We investigate this puzzle by characterizing delay factors governing tubewell irrigation across wealth and precipitation gradients. After the decision to irrigate, different factors delay irrigation by roughly one week. While more sustainable and inexpensive energy for pumping may eventually catalyze transformative change, we identify near-term interventions that may increase rice farmers’ resilience to water stress in smallholder-dominated farming communities based on prevailing types of irrigation infrastructure.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/02508060.2019.1708172 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:taf:rwinxx:v:45:y:2020:i:1:p:39-59

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rwin20

DOI: 10.1080/02508060.2019.1708172

Access Statistics for this article

Water International is currently edited by James Nickum, Philippus Wester, Remy Kinna, Xueliang Cai, Yoram Eckstein, Naho Mirumachi and Cecilia Tortajada

More articles in Water International from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().