An analysis of groundwater irrigation expansion in India

This paper suggest that groundwater irrigation expansion in India is driven mainly by the population pressure and not necessarily dependent on the change in surface water irrigation. However, in the districts irrigated by Groundwater only, our findings indicate that the marginal effect of groundwater on Gross Irrigated Area (GIA) is lower than that in the district endowed with both surface and groundwater irrigation facilities. In a situation where groundwater irrigation is the dominant form of irrigation, any surface water irrigation project in future would thus facilitate better groundwater utilisation and help in increasing the land-use intensification.