Publication: An Assessment of Community-Led Lift Irrigation Systems in Jharkhand, India
Loading...
Published
2023-05-15
ISSN
Date
2023-05-15
Editor(s)
Abstract
The Jharkhand State Livelihoods Promotion Society is rolling-out solar powered community lift irrigation systems to provide access to irrigation to 23,580 farming families in 13 districts of the state. This paper assesses these irrigation systems using data collected from 297 farmers in the command area of 50 randomly selected irrigation systems. The study also interviewed 457 nonbeneficiaries. Farmers in the command area of the irrigation systems irrigate more land, have higher cropping intensity, are more likely to grow high-value crops, and had higher gross value of output in the Rabi (winter) season. The beneficiaries also spend less money on irrigation, especially compared with nonbeneficiaries who use their own or who rent diesel pumps to irrigate their fields. Although the solar powered community lift irrigation systems offer multiple benefits, they remain severely underutilized. The median hours of operation of the 50 sampled irrigation systems was less than 100 hours per year, and the average operating time was 192 hours per year. Solar irrigation systems cannot be economically viable with low levels of capacity utilization, indicating that incentives are needed for system managers to increase utilization, gross irrigated area, and irrigation surplus.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Kishore, Avinash; Gupta, Manavi; Dizon, Felipe; Kumar, Priti. 2023. An Assessment of Community-Led Lift Irrigation Systems in Jharkhand, India. Policy Research Working Papers; 10439. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/39809 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Learnings From Community-Based Small-Scale Irrigation in Tribal Areas of Jharkhand, India(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-03)JOHAR is a pioneer in enabling tribal communities to be an integral stakeholder in development by ensuring availability, accessibility and utilization of water resources for agricultural development. JOHAR supports 200,000 small and marginal farmers in primarily rainfed, backward, drought prone, upland and tribal areas of Jharkhand. It facilitates a unique approach, that of "community-led irrigation" which brings water directly to the fields, and fosters community ownership from the onset of project conception, to survey and implementation, right through to operations and maintenance. This note highlights JOHAR's focus on promoting such an approach through engaging the community, particularly women in planning, implementation, monitoring and overall management of their irrigation infrastructure.Publication Comparative Impacts of Input Subsidies, Irrigation Investments, and Social Cash Transfers on Food and Nutrition Security in Malawi(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-05-20)This study examines the impact of farm input subsidies, food and cash transfers, and irrigation investments on the dietary diversity, food consumption scores, and coping strategy index in Malawi. Despite the potential for synergies to address a range of vulnerabilities affecting food consumption, very few studies focus on combined program effects. The analysis employs three-waves of integrated household panel surveys for Malawi from 2013, 2016, and 2019, and uses instrumental variable Poisson and Tobit regression to address endogeneity. The findings show weak joint program participation effects, which may be due to program design or data limitations in this evaluation. Households that receive food and cash transfers showed improvements in diet diversity and the food consumption score. Input subsidies were less effective in helping households cope with food insecurity and reduced diet diversity and the food consumption score. This suggests that overreliance on agricultural input subsidies may lead to reduced variety in food consumption. Policies that are aimed at more linkages between programs should also diversity and rebalance public spending to reduce food and nutrition insecurity.Publication India - Jharkhand : Addressing the Challenges of Inclusive Development(Washington, DC, 2007-03)This study on Jharkhand in India addresses the challenges faced by that new state of India (founded in November 2000) to surmount adverse initial conditions of low average income, very high incidence of poverty, and little social development. In addition, initial health and education indicators in Jharkhand were also markedly unfavorable in comparison to both the all-India average and the major Indian states. The paper points out that in order to put its fiscal house in order, the state needs to introduce reforms for improving resource mobilization, increasing cost effectiveness of expenditure and rationalizing the budgetary processes. Improvement of infrastructure is critically important, and once this has occurred, this will lead to favorable pro-poor changes in the labor market as well. Two opposite views of the development debate are represented by the different degrees of importance given to mining and agriculture. One view contends that the development of the mining sector can usher in a new decade of development in Jharkhand. The second view is that the potential risks associated with the mining sector are high and that agriculture has shown great potential through impressive growth in recent years contributing significantly to poverty reduction and human resource development. Given the strengths and weaknesses of the two options, the present study suggests a middle path, aiming at an inter-temporal balance between the two strategies. The paper stresses that social inclusion and effective citizenship for all are desirable outcomes everywhere, especially in Jharkhand with its sharp social and regional divide. It concludes that political commitment is needed to "make development happen" in the shortest possible time.Publication India : Environmental Sustainability in the 1990s, A Country Assistance Evaluation(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2002)India's environmental problems are deep-rooted and severe. Estimates of annual environmental damage range from 4.5 percent to 8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), in line with annual economic growth. Since 1990 the World Bank has lent India 1.94 billion dollars for 19 projects to mitigate environmental damage and another 97 million dollars was granted under global environmental facility (GEF) and Montreal protocol trust funds for four projects to protect the global environment. The Bank has also supported a spectrum of economic and sector work (ESW) that address environmental issues based on country assistance strategies. The report identifies eight conclusions for the Bank s future environmental assistance to India: integrate safeguards earlier in the project cycle; provide alternatives to public sector management of water supply and sewerage systems; greatly expand support of sanitation programs; air pollution needs to be targeted as a priority measure; step up efforts to promote rational pricing of natural resources; monitoring and enforcement of environmental standards is lagging and undermines the whole regulatory effort; links between poverty reduction and ecological balance must be more fully documented; and better recognition of global environmental threats will also address local concerns.Publication Assessing the Direct Economic Effects of Reallocating Irrigation Water to Alternative Uses : Concepts and an Application(2011-09-01)Irrigation water reallocations are playing an increasingly important role in both developed and developing countries. With growing urban and environmental water demands, rising costs for the development of new water supplies, and irrigated agriculture usually including the least economically valuable use of water, transfers of irrigation water to alternative uses are increasing. However, such reallocations are often controversial, and it is often questioned whether the benefits resulting from these transactions are large enough to outweigh the associated costs. This paper reviews the experience with irrigation water transfers, including the involvement of the World Bank. It discusses the problems of assessing the direct economic effects of reallocations, with a focus on the foregone direct benefits in irrigated agriculture. Because foregone direct benefits cannot easily be directly observed, they need to be estimated. However, assessments have shown widely differing estimates -- even when the same methodology was used. The paper reviews the methodologies and model specifications used for estimating foregone direct benefits; illustrates the impact of different model specifications on the magnitude of estimates of foregone direct benefits based on an application in an example case; and draws conclusions with regard to future efforts in assessing reallocation effects, including calculating adequate compensation for farmers. Because estimating the direct benefits of irrigation expansion is methodologically equivalent to estimating foregone direct benefits from reduced irrigation water supplies, the findings have implications for a broader range of water allocation decisions.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Kyrgyz Republic Country Climate and Development Report(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-03)This Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) on the Kyrgyz Republic aims to support the country’s development goals amid a changing climate. The CCDR considers two policy scenarios up to 2050: the business-as-usual (BAU) and high-growth scenarios. As it quantifies the likely impacts of climate change on the Kyrgyz economy between now and 2050, the report highlights key government actions to best prepare for and adapt to climate impacts (referred to as “with adaptation” measures), with a particular focus on the time horizon up to 2030. The CCDR also outlines a path to net zero emissions by 2050 (referred to as “with mitigation” measures, “decarbonization,” or, simply, “net zero 2050”), highlighting associated development co-benefits.Publication Taxes, Spending, and Equity: International Patterns and Lessons for Developing Countries(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-17)Taxes and public spending underpin the basic administration of government and finance the human capital and infrastructure investments needed for economic growth. They can also have a significant and immediate impact on poverty and inequality. The question of how public finance can support longer-term growth objectives while promoting equity has become even more important in recent years, given the high fiscal deficits and debt levels most countries emerged with in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. These included the increasing cost of debt and the need to restart environmentally sustainable growth while helping households address the learning losses and other social scars caused by the pandemic. This paper examines the global evidence on which households pay which taxes and who benefits from what spending, and critically, the net effect on different households across the income distribution. The aim is to identify the patterns and lessons that emerge for designing progressive fiscal policies. A global dataset of 96 countries is assembled, spanning all regions of the world and all national income levels, grounded in the Commitment to Equity (CEQ) approach to fiscal incidence.Publication Continental Drying: A Threat to Our Common Future(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-04)Grounded in new evidence from satellite data, “Continental Drying: A Threat to Our Common Future” presents the first global assessment of freshwater reserves over the past two decades. The findings expose an alarming trend of “continental drying,” a persistent long-term decline in freshwater availability across vast landmasses. Not only are droughts and deluges becoming more unpredictable, but the total amount of freshwater available for use has also significantly declined. Continental drying, driven by global warming, worsening droughts, and unsustainable water and land use, is a silent but accelerating crisis—largely unknown to the public—that reshapes the global water narrative. Continental drying raises profound risks. This report reveals new empirical evidence showing how freshwater depletion leads to major job losses, reduced incomes, wildfires, and biodiversity threats. In the long term, the combined effects of drying and warming could push societies toward a tipping point where damage accelerates rapidly and adaptation becomes increasingly difficult. Against the backdrop of continental drying, global water consumption rose by 25 percent between 2000 and 2019, with about a third of this increase occurring in regions already experiencing drying. Compounding the pressure, a substantial share of water use in drying regions remains inefficient. Continental Drying identifies hot spots where rising demand and declining supply converge and explores where and how water savings can be realized. This report recommends a three-pronged approach to address the crisis: managing demand, augmenting water supply, and improving water allocation. Five cross-cutting levers—strengthening institutions, reforming water tariffs and repurposing subsidies, adopting water accounting, leveraging data and technological innovations, and valuing water in trade—are essential for effective implementation and to attract private investment to finance the approach. Beyond water, addressing trade barriers, investing in education and skills development, and improving access to markets and financial services are critical for strengthening job and livelihood resilience amid a continental drying crisis.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Direct and Indirect Impacts of Transport Mobility on Access to Jobs: Evidence from South Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-12)Access to jobs is essential for economic growth. In Africa, unemployment rates are notably high. This paper reexamines the relationship between transport mobility and labor market outcomes, with a particular focus on the direct and indirect effects of transport connectivity. As predicted by theory, wages are influenced by the level of commuting deterrence. Generally, higher earnings are associated with longer commute times and/or higher commuting costs. Local accessibility is also important, especially for individuals with time constraints. Both direct and indirect impacts are found to be significant in South Africa, where job accessibility has been challenging since the end of apartheid. For the direct impact, the wage elasticity associated with commuting costs is significant. Returns on commute are particularly high for women. Local accessibility to socioeconomic facilities, such as shops and health services, is also found to have a significant impact, consistent with the concept of mobility of care. To enhance employment, therefore, it is crucial to connect people not only to job locations but also to various socioeconomic points of interest, such as markets and hospitals, in an integrated manner. This integration will enable individuals to spend more time working and commuting longer distances.