To Consume or to Conserve: Examining Water Conservation Model for Wheat Cultivation in India

Constitutionally in India, the individual states have responsibility for water, forests, and agriculture. Major canal irrigation accounts for over 80 percent of India's irrigation. This paper observes the intensive wheat irrigated system in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh states of India to analyze the impact of incentive mechanism favoring the crop yield and water use. Findings from farm surveys are used to examine water management and water productivity in the Haryana and Uttar Pradesh state. Attributes of the irrigation sources help explain the widespread interest in groundwater use and the relative demise of canal water use. Based on the data set for the Indo-Gangetic Plain, the overall goal of this paper was to examine how the irrigation management reform has proceeded since the early stages of implementation and what the impacts are of the incentive mechanisms on water use and crop yields.