Understanding the effectiveness of investments in irrigation system modernization: evidence from Madhya Pradesh, India

Sinha, Ranu; Gilmont, Michael; Hope, Robert; Dadson, Simon

doi:10.1080/07900627.2018.1480357

Cited by 7 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…The rest of the papers in this issue include a state-of-the-art review of institutional arrangements for water governance (Hassenforder & Barone, 2018), a cost-benefit analysis of river restoration in Israel (Becker, Greenfeld, & Shamir, 2018), a study of the effectiveness of investments in irrigation modernization in Madhya Pradesh (Sinha, Gilmont, Hope, & Dadson, 2018) and several excellent analyses on groundwater: competing uses and stakeholder rights to groundwater in the Fuencaliente Aquifer (Berbel, Expósito, & Borrego-Marín, 2018); groundwater modelling of the Mancha Oriental Aquifer (Sanz et al, 2018); and an assessment of groundwater rejuvenation in Gujarat (Kumar & Perry, 2018).…”

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confidence: 99%

Water crisis and water wars: myths and realities

Biswas

Tortajada

2019

International Journal of Water Resources Development

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In recent decades, 'water crisis' and 'water wars' have become increasing concerns of water professionals, political scientists and the media. Both start with the simplistic and erroneous assumption that the quantity of water available in the world for human use is limited. This, coupled with the fact that population, urbanization and industrial activities are all steadily increasing, is used to predict that the world is facing a water crisis of unprecedented proportion, which may even result in wars between countries over water. Projections in recent years by major international organizations have been consistently dire. For example, in 2009, the 2030 Water Resources Group projected that the world would face 40% water deficit under a business-as-usual climate scenario. In 2016, UNEP claimed that by 2030 almost 'half of the world's population will suffer from severe water stress'. In 2017, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon proclaimed that by 2030 the 'world may face 40% shortfall in water'. The World Bank has claimed that by 2050, about 1.8 billion people will be living under acute water scarcity. In 2018, the World Bank and the UN claimed that 36% of the global population lives in water-scarce areas. The World Resources Institute (WRI) claimed that 33 countries will face 'extremely high water stress'. According to the WRI analysis, seven countries will jointly rank as number one in terms of the most water-stressed countries of the world. All of them are in the Middle East, except for Singapore. These are frightening statistics that have been repeated ad nauseam by academics, water professionals, political figures and international organizations without any serious scrutiny of the validity of their underlying assumptions, the methodology of their estimates, or the national and international data-sets available and their quality. The fundamental question that arises is, are such frightening forecasts correct, or should they be taken with a very big pinch of salt? Probabilities are, it is likely to be the latter. First, as every school kid knows, water is a renewable resource. It is not like oil, natural gas or coal, which after being used break down into different components and cannot be used again. Water, by contrast, can be used, and the wastewater generated can be treated and reused. Properly managed, this process can continue indefinitely. Thus, how much renewable water a country has is not a meaningful metric. When the World Commission on Water started its work, one of the first decisions it made was that no attempt would be made to estimate how much water a country, or the world, had that could be used, because it is not a meaningful number. How much water is available for use will depend primarily on how well this resource is managed. Yet most international and national institutions have decided that if a country has less than 1700 m 3 per person of renewable freshwater, it is suffering from water stress. If this figure falls below 1000 m 3 per person, it is facing scarcity.

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confidence: 99%

Water crisis and water wars: myths and realities

Biswas

Tortajada

2019

International Journal of Water Resources Development

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“…These higher values are because the investments made include works that were not directly aimed at achieving GWS. Although in Spain, as in other countries (Venot et al 2014;Berbel et al 2019;Sinha et al 2019), the discourse surrounding irrigation modernization emphasizes water-use efficiency, many WUAs have made investments (taking advantage of available subsidies) aimed at reducing irrigation operating costs (irrigation ponds, pumps, electrical installations, automation), improving convenience for farmers (elimination of night-time irrigation), incorporating new resources to improve water supply guarantee, and replacing obsolete infrastructure, among other objectives. Specifically, model 2 shows an efficiency level close to 80% (TE = 0.797 and PTE = 0.812).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of Data Envelopment Analysis to Evaluate Investments in the Modernization of Collective Management Irrigation Systems in Valencia (Spain)

García-Mollá

Puertas

Ibor

2021

Water Resour Manage

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Climate change and increased competition for water resources are generating growing concern about how to improve water-use efficiency in agriculture. In turn, this has prompted substantial investments in the installation of water-saving technologies in irrigation systems. The first aim of this research is to use data envelopment analysis to quantify, in terms of gross water savings (GWS), the local-scale efficiency of the irrigation policies adopted in an area of Spain suffering from a structural water deficit. Second, the cross-efficiency method is used to produce a ranking of the irrigation organizations analysed, in order to identify patterns of water-use efficiency performance that can guide future lines of investment. The results reveal that water-use efficiency prior to modernization is a key determinant of the efficiency achieved in terms of GWS at local scale. However, the investments targeted at irrigation modernization often have objectives other than water savings. These and other aspects should be taken into account when allocating public funds to irrigation modernization.

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“…The aim of the project was to improve cropping intensity, enhance the irrigation efficiency of the rehabilitated surface irrigation canals, and promote crop production for summer (kharif) crops (e.g., rice) and winter (rabi) crops (e.g., wheat and gram) (Sinha et al, 2018). Upon closure in 2015, the project made a total investment of USD$ 440 million to rehabilitate 202 minor, 21 medium, and 5 major irrigation schemes for a total of 228 projects across the 6 river basins (Sinha et al, 2018).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Over half (61%) of the 193,000 farms in the project area are small farms with an average landholding size of less than 1 ha (Sinha et al, 2018). Most of the respondent farmers in the study area are the poorest members of rural society in India, mainly coming from the most vulnerable caste groups (Sinha et al, 2018). Out of the 31 districts within the 6 river basins, 21 districts received investments to rehabilitate irrigation systems and 10 districts received no funding from the MPWSRP.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Does subjective well‐being matter when assessing the impacts of irrigation infrastructure? Empirical evidence from Madhya Pradesh, India

Sinha

Dadson

Hope

2022

Irrigation and Drainage

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Investments to rehabilitate irrigation infrastructure aim to enhance climate resilience and improve farmers' livelihoods in the face of hydrological risks. Studies seeking to assess the impacts from investments in irrigation primarily focus on yield and income‐related poverty measures. This approach provides an incomplete picture of the distributional implications of investments, such as the impact of rehabilitated irrigation infrastructure on the subjective well‐being of farmers. Drawing on data from 707 farmers in Madhya Pradesh, India, we explore whether investments to rehabilitate irrigation infrastructure are associated with changes in subjective well‐being among smallholders. Our findings show a positive relationship between farmers with access to rehabilitated surface irrigation and well‐being improvements. Results reveal that farmers in areas with rehabilitated irrigation canals experience improvements in subjective well‐being which are 20%–30% higher in comparison to farmers in areas without rehabilitated canals. When results are disaggregated, we find a larger positive effect on well‐being for farmers in deficient‐rainfall areas compared to average‐ or high‐rainfall areas. The integration of contextual factors related to subjective well‐being into future assessments of infrastructure investments in India can enhance knowledge of the multidimensional benefits of canal irrigation among diverse farming groups facing differing degrees of hydrological risk.

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Understanding the effectiveness of investments in irrigation system modernization: evidence from Madhya Pradesh, India

Cited by 7 publications

References 61 publications

Water crisis and water wars: myths and realities

Water crisis and water wars: myths and realities

Application of Data Envelopment Analysis to Evaluate Investments in the Modernization of Collective Management Irrigation Systems in Valencia (Spain)

Does subjective well‐being matter when assessing the impacts of irrigation infrastructure? Empirical evidence from Madhya Pradesh, India

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