Groundwater markets in karnataka key issues in sustainability

Abstract

The groundwater is a highly scarce resource in the Karnataka state and is also newlinedepleting fast. It is one of the major factors of production in the agrarian economy of the state. newlineThe groundwater draft in the state is more than its recharge, particularly in the arid and semiarid newlineregions and has caused deepening of groundwater table. There are private water sellers newlinesharing water with fellow farmers and charging water mostly on crop sharing basis. In all of newlinethese situations, a farmer s decision to sell water depends on the reliability of water supply, newlineexistence of buyer in the neighbourhood and price of water. newlineThe present study was taken up in Karnataka state with the objective of examining newlinegroundwater markets- their status, supply and demand for water, externalities involved and newlinesustainability and equity issues. The study mainly uses primary data obtained from 120 newlinefarmers spread across Belgaum, Bijapur and Bagalkot districts of Karnataka. Data were newlineprocessed using tabular analysis and Logit Model. The sample farmers consisted of 44.17 newlinepercent self-users, 27.50 percent self-users-cum-sellers and 28.33 per cent buyers. The newlineimportant sources of irrigation in the study area were borewell, open-cum-borewell and openwell. newlineFall in water table was mainly due to decrease in rainfall and increase in number of newlinewells. Nearly 79 percent of the farmers had insecurity feeling with respect to groundwater newlineresource mainly due to fall in water table. Farmers suggested changing the irrigation method newlinefrom furrow to drip/sprinkler for conserving water. Annual crops fetched highest average gross newlinereturns per ha for both sellers and buyers. Well-owners sold water to neighbourhood farmers newlineonly if they had surplus water. The most serious negative externalities of groundwater newlinemarketing were reduction of water outflow during pumping and fall in water table. Some policy newlineimplications that emerged from the study were implementation of effective groundwater newlinerecharging technologies, monitoring of prescribed inter-well distance, nationalisation of newline