Tushaar Shah
IWMI-Tata Water Policy Programme, Gujarat, India

"Industry and urban centres are increasingly competing with agriculture for water sources. We must grapple with energy¹, which is water intensive, especially with continued urbanization. Freshwater will be a vital resource as long as the population is growing and we need agriculture to feed it! Freshwater is vital for food security. I would say water management will be a key issue for the next two to three decades, and then hopefully we will see new solutions and technologies being implemented.

We have had to be flexible². We offer practical solutions rather than optimal ones³. These solutions are correct within the constraints we face.

We cast a wide net when it comes to solutions. We are interested in practical implementability. We have had greater success where we can show policy makers something they can imagine implementing.

Today there is a greater appetite for science-based solutions⁴. Science was divorced from decision making and we have been bridging the gap. There is increased acceptance of ideas and collaboration in water systems management.

More recently we’ve conducted research into improving partnership and cooperation. Ten years ago, when we began this project, we didn’t understand the craft of addressing policy messages to decision makers. We are better now. "

Due to this project, 40 to 50 million people have better access to consistent electricity and groundwater availability⁵ . But they don’t relate it to IWMI or our work. The farmers are not our target market, we speak with policy makers. So they don’t acknowledge our work but they do benefit.

We are not pure researchers. We are problem solvers. It’s vital for a young team of researchers to see the impact they have on people’s lives. It provides great satisfaction. And now the project has become a flagship for India’s 12^th five-year plan for power supply ⁶. It is already being replicated in several states. For example, in Punjab already 100% of villages have separated power lines for use in agriculture, for irrigation. There is progress elsewhere, several rewiring projects are ongoing.

Climate change and increased demands on irrigation due to competition for water will make the challenges we face today more severe in the future.

Increased climate variability will only enhance dependence on irrigation to secure crops. Without reform the process will become very complicated. Power subsidy is very important and will form part of the solution.

For example, solar irrigation is emerging and growing. At the moment it is very expensive, especially start up costs, for farmers. At the moment, there are subsidies which cover 87% of initial costs. We are researching better ways to utilize and promote the subsidies."

IWMI-Tata Water Policy Program, India, was awarded with the Category 1 'Best water management practices' Water for Life UN-Water Best Practices Award in 2014..

>> More information about IWMI-Tata Water Policy Program, India

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¹IWMI-Tata Water Policy Program (ITP) was initiated in 2001 as a co-equal partnership between the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Colombo, and Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT), Mumbai. ITP is an international scientific institute which has focused on developing ideas for co-management of energy and groundwater (Energy-Irrigation Nexus), a key facet of agriculture in India.

²Here ITP recommended that a plan to create a US$120 million pipeline to water scarce areas was scrapped. Instead, in 2005-2006, the Government of Gujarat launched the Jyotirgram Yojana (JGY) programme and spent US$250 million to completely re-wire the state. Today the new set up provides a daily separate source of eight hours of uninterrupted power just foragriculture.

³ITP put expert observers on the ground. They found that Indian agriculture didn’t need optimal solutions – merely practical ones. For example, they found that where groundwater was excellent but electrical power was unavailable, expensive diesel was pushing up the cost of production. Meanwhile in water scarce areas with extensive power, wasteful electrical practices and the cost of transporting water also increased costs.

⁴This is just one instance of how ITP showed that despite a lot of potentially useful scientific research being conducted in India, it often does not reach the policy makers – who are willing and keen to learn from science – because neither the research objectives nor the research design are formulated with them in mind.

⁵By providing regular and reliable power, JGY made it possible for farmers to keep to their irrigation schedules, conserve water, save on pump maintenance costs, use labour more efficiently and expand their irrigated agriculture rapidly. While GDP from agriculture grew at just under 3 percent per annum for India as a whole, Gujarat has recorded nearly 10 percent growth since the project’s inception in 2003, the highest in India. The scheme has been so successful the government of India has made it a flagship scheme in its 12th five-year plan for the power sector.

⁶ITP has shown how an international scientific institute working as equal partner with an Indian donor can set the agenda for discussion, debate and policy action around India’s future of water and agriculture.