Beschreibung
In the wake of increasing economic scarcity of groundwater, food and livelihood security in arid and semi-arid regions of India and especially in the Chikkaballapur taluk (the study region) is threatened. Unabated groundwater overdraft coupled with inadequate recharge are leading to increasing probability of well failure, decline in water table and high levels of fluoride contamination. As major coping mechanism, farmers have adopted drip irrigation and resorted to water market. This book analyzes dynamics of agricultural groundwater use in presence of water markets with three objectives: (i) to estimate the impact of water market on farming; (ii) to analyze factors influencing farmers articipation in water market; and (iii) to estimate optimal path of water extraction in presence of water markets and other policy scenarios. The estimated dynamic optimization (optimal control) model indicated how much and how long the groundwater can be optimally extracted considering agro-economic and hydro-geological information. This study offers a cafeteria of policies for improving benefits from water markets and in reducing groundwater overdraft in hard rock areas.
