The paper analyzes the potential impacts of energy pricing on efficiency, equity and sustainability in groundwater use. The overall objective of the study is to analyze the socio-economic viability of pro rata pricing of electricity in agriculture. Specific objectives are:
The major hypothesis tested in this study is that with mounting cost of energy used for groundwater pumping, farmer would use energy and groundwater efficiently; shift their cropping system towards water efficient and high valued crops, take higher farming risks, thereby overcoming the potential negative impacts. The analysis uses empirical data on water productivity in agriculture for crops, dairying and farms, from north Gujarat, east UP and south Bihar.
The findings are as follows:
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