The impact of water users’ associations on the productivity of irrigated agriculture in Pakistani Punjab

Abstract

This paper finds productivity-enhancing effects of watercourse-level water users’ associations for farms at the tail of a watercourse and for those that rely exclusively on groundwater – two groups that are marginalized from surface water use and more likely to rely increasingly on groundwater. Yet, heavy reliance on groundwater consumes vast energy resources and leads to environmental degradation through overdraft and groundwater salinization. Improving the management of surface water through functioning watercourse-level institutions can increase use efficiency across water, energy and land resources through increasing agricultural productivity of those now least able to access fresh surface water resources.

Keywords:

• irrigation management transfer
• khal panchayats
• productivity
• water users’ association
• Pakistan

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the insights and comments received from two anonymous referees, as well as participants at the 2014 annual meeting of the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association in Minneapolis, MN. Any and all errors are the sole responsibility of the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported with generous funding from the Pakistan Strategy Support Program under the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets.