FAO Project Document book - Solutions for Water platform - World ...

Project Document
programme. Further more, the large number of wells, entrenched tradition of private users
right, and limited administrative capacities in many rural areas, militate against the success
of centralized regulatory approaches. GOI emphasizes the importance of stakeholder
participation in the management of wells (MOWR, 1996). Expanding this approach to include
mechanisms for effective stakeholder participation in management of the resource base
will be critical.
It is clear from the above discussion that the poor bear the greatest burden of groundwater
management. Given the framework of the project proposal, it is beyond doubt that the
main beneficiaries of sustainable groundwater management will be those small/marginal
farmers and landless depending on agriculture labour.
B 1e
Economic problems
Groundwater development has led to increased drought proofing of India’s agricultural
economy. If one compares the drought years 1965-66 and 1987-88, food grains production
declined 19% in 1965-66, in contrast to 1987-88, when food grain production declined only
2%. Much of this can be attributed to the spread of irrigation in general and of groundwater
irrigation in particular. The growth of India’s irrigated area, particularly, the area irrigated
with groundwater has greatly reduced the economy’s vulnerability to face reductions in
rainfall, drought proofing the rural economy in general and the crop sector in particular.
Groundwater irrigation supports employment generation and thus rural development and
poverty alleviation. Groundwater development also promotes direct and indirect employment
of skilled and unskilled persons. Additional indirect employment created on every ha of
irrigated land through increased agricultural activity would be approximately 45 days per
ha.
A rough estimate suggests that about 80% of the population in the target area have
agriculture and allied activities as their principal livelihood. Therefore any poverty alleviation
initiative should result in improved agricultural productivity. All the seven districts, covered
under the project are declared as drought prone areas by the Government. Apart from
vagaries of the monsoon, the land holding pattern makes the small and marginal dry land
farmers the most vulnerable.
30