Publication

Abstract : The state of Gujarat in western India falls mostly in arid and/or semi-arid regions, where half of the rural households depend on agriculture. The relatively low rainfall regions in the state receive rainfall for about 15–20 days during the monsoon with high inter-annual variation. Groundwater irrigation was promoted on a large scale to mitigate the impacts of droughts. Intensive use of groundwater had resulted in its depletion and contamination. To address the worsening groundwater problem, the state government has been promoting micro-irrigation systems (MIS) among the farmers in recent years, through the Gujarat Green Revolution Company (GGRC) Limited, which acts as a nodal agency, using capital subsidy in the range of 50–75 %. There are not many studies that investigate the role of subsidy in enhancing the rate of adoption of MIS. The ‘seasonality’ dimension in the pattern of adoption and use of MIS is also an important factor that determines the access to the benefits of micro-irrigation, which needs to be investigated. This chapter tries to address this by studying: (i) the influence of subsidy in enhancing the MIS adoption rate in the recent years; and (ii) the effects of seasonality and cropping pattern on accessing the benefits from MIS, using an empirical study in Banaskantha district of north Gujarat. The study covered 122 public tubewells with MIS, and 355 farmers randomly selected as sample. The results suggest that: (a) subsidy significantly increased adoption of MIS in recent years; and (b) the environmental and socio-economic benefits of MIS adoption was largely confined to certain specific crops and the seasons. From a policy perspective, this analysis could help in identifying and promoting specific crops/cropping patterns that can produce better outcomes of investments.