Low prices of water and drop in productivity

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: for themselves in one year. By reducing water costs and raising yields, they can dramatically raise incomes of smallholders.

Sandra Postel estimates that the combination of these drip technologies at various scales has the potential to profitably irrigate 10 million hectares of India’s cropland, or nearly one-tenth of the total. In Punjab, fast-falling water tables led the state farmers’ commission in 2007 to recommend a delay in transplanting rice from May to late June or early July. This would reduce irrigation water use by roughly one-third since transplanting would coincide with the arrival of the monsoon. This reduction in groundwater use would help stabilise the water table, which has fallen from 5 metre below the surface to 30 metres in parts of the state.

Institutional shifts—specifically, moving the responsibility for managing irrigation systems from government agencies to local water users associations—can facilitate the more efficient use of water. In many countries farmers are organising locally so they can assume this responsibility, and since they have an economic stake in good water management, they tend to do a better job than a distant government agency.

Low water productivity is often the result of low water prices. In many countries, subsidies lead to irrationally low water prices, creating the impression that water is abundant when, in fact, it is scarce. As water becomes scarce, it needs to be priced accordingly. Provincial governments in northern China are raising water prices in small increments to discourage waste. A higher water price affects all water users, encouraging investment in more water-efficient irrigation technologies, industrial processes, and household appliances.

What is needed now is a new mindset, a new way of thinking about water use. For example, shifting to more water-efficient crops wherever possible boosts water productivity. Rice production is being phased out around Beijing because rice is a thirsty crop. Egypt also restricts rice production. Any measures that raise crop yields on irrigated land also raise the productivity of irrigation water. Any measures that convert grain into animal protein more efficiently in effect increase water productivity.