January - March 2013 - National Institute of Rural Development

Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. (1) pp. 75 - 85NIRD, Hyderabad.ECONOMIC IMPACT OF WATERMANAGEMENT : A CASE STUDYArijit Roy*ABSTRACTWater is commonly regarded as plentiful, especially in the medium to highrainfall areas. But water is not equally distributed over the earth’s surface. Theincreasing uncertainty over rainfall is hampering the normal economic activitiesespecially agriculture. In rural West Bengal, man-made “chowka” is a beautifulexample of water harvesting structure acting as lifeline to farmers during the dryseason and minimising the risk of water-logging during uncommon heavy rainfall.This paper attempts to assess the economic impact of water management practicesin a medium rainfall area in West Bengal. Also the effects of land size, expenditure oninputs and the role of panchayat are taken into account. The impact is evaluated interms of cropping pattern, productivity, income, employment, and household assets.The study reveals that the overall impact is positive and significant, and hence, itdemands a systematic and well-organised planning-execution approach to watermanagement projects.IntroductionIn high and medium rainfall areas, rainwateracts as the predominant input inagriculture. However, the uncertainty overrainfall in recent years is becoming a stumblingblock. Farmers are exploring alternativesources of water. Here comes the significanceof water resource management – to explorenew sources of water, to store water, tominimise water use for maximum output andto minimise water leakages and losses. Theinland small and medium scale agriculturemay find surface and groundwater as viablealternatives. However, groundwater extractionusing shallow pumps are prohibited indifferent areas for various reasons. So thesmall and medium farmers fall back heavilyon surface water resources. But very often,farmers are unaware or simply not interestedto collect surface water, even when there isno pond or water-body nearby. The theory,process and benefit of rain and surface waterharvesting is a new topic to many of them. Butsurface and rain-water harvesting in differentstructures within the landholding maycontribute significantly to the agriculturalproductivity and income of small and mediumfarmers.Pereira, H.C. (1973) has rightly pointedout that “the arable croplands carry the majorburden of sustaining human food needs. Thedifficulties in farming them increase with* Assistant Professor in Economics, Department of Commerce, V.M. Mahavidyalaya, Chaitanyapur, EastMidnapore, West Bengal - 721645. E-mail : aroy2003@gmail.comThe author is grateful to Dr. Madhusudan Datta for serious discussion and comments on the paper.