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Abstract
In terms of water resources, North Bengal is one of the best‐endowed regions in India. While the region has huge ground and surface water potential, it also concentrates a large number of rural poor who depend on smallholder farming and farm labor for their livelihoods. The issue central to water governance is how to best design instruments of public support to stimulate smallholder (minor) irrigation and harness the abundant groundwater resources to improve conditions for the region's rural poor. Extreme poverty precludes private investments in minor irrigation on the scale necessary to make a significant and quick impact. As a result, subsidy support for minor irrigation investments has remained crucial in North Bengal as well as in much of the eastern Ganges basin. This paper assesses the North Bengal Terai Development Project (NBTDP) developed by the Government of West Bengal. During much of the 1990s, the North Bengal Terai Development Project shaped and implemented the Minor Irrigation Policy of the Government of West Bengal in this region. This paper deals with three distinct sets of questions regarding the subsidy policy: (1) What is the rationale for minor irrigation subsidies in North Bengal? (2) Does the North Bengal Terai Development Project's subsidy policy achieve its minor irrigation objectives in an efficient, sustainable, and socially adequate manner? and (3) Is there scope for designing minor irrigation subsidy policies for better impact? The conclusion also explores what should be the objective of minor irrigation policy for North Bengal's socioeconomic and aquatic conditions and how this might be achieved.