Groundwater depletion and water extraction cost: some evidence from South India

Abstract

From less than 6 million ha in 1950–51, groundwater-irrigated area increased to about 45 million ha in 2010–11, which is over 62% of India's net irrigated area. But the rapid development of groundwater has brought many negative outcomes for farmers. An attempt is made in this study to find out the losers and gainers of groundwater irrigation using survey data on 234 dug-well- and bore-well-owning farmers selected from two regions having different agro-economic settings in the Pudukkottai District of Tamil Nadu, a state in South India. The study shows that the dug-well- and bore-well-owning farmers had to incur a huge additional cost on account of modifications of wells in order to keep up with the falling water level. The modification cost alone accounted for about 33–48% of the real capital of bore-wells. The pumping cost of water is found to be higher for bore-wells fitted with submersible pump-sets as compared to deep bore-wells fitted with submersible pump-sets.