ABSTRACT
In India, irrigation uses 90 per cent of water but its demand is still growing. Massive financial allocations are still being made to new projects to provide more water for irrigation. The efficiency of water use is not even remotely on the national agenda. Investments in major irrigation projects have neither added any additional area of irrigation nor improved the productivity of irrigated crops or farm incomes. The increase in irrigated area after the 1980s is primarily due to groundwater irrigation by the small/marginal farmers and not due to state investments which have largely been in major irrigation projects. This has led to overexploitation of groundwater resources, making India reach the ‘water stress’ state since water resources have dipped below 1000 m3 per capita. India clearly needs to reduce its agriculture water use by reorienting agriculture policy towards sustainable water policy, with specific targets to reduce water demand of major staple and commercial crops, compensated by guaranteed higher productivity of irrigated crops. This chapter addresses the analysis of the demand-side management of water and appeals for the integration of supply-side management through integrated subsidies as incentives to farmers.
