Head Above Water

Water resources in West Bengal have traditionally been richer than other parts of India. Yet,Bengal’s agricultural produce is far below states like Punjab and Haryana. When Mukherji began her field work,she came across a paradox. “Excessive restriction on access to groundwater in a state of relative water abundance but land scarcity,like Bengal,can keep farmers in perpetual poverty. Farmers with very small land holdings in Bengal need to grow two to three crops in a year and groundwater provides reliable,all-year-round irrigation. However,with dependence on diesel pumps and high cost of diesel,farmers were reverting to single-cropping,even though water was available in plenty,” says Mukherji,35,a senior researcher at the Delhi office of International Water Management Institute.

Mukherji,who did her PhD in geography from Cambridge University,UK,realised that electrification of pumps was the answer,but there were several roadblocks. The state’s Groundwater Act of 2005 required all farmers get a permit from the groundwater authority before they applied for an electric connection. “This process was fraught with red tape and corruption. Even if a farmer managed to get a permit,he had to pay the full capital cost of electrification of a tubewell. This included cost of wires,poles and transformers and would come to Rs1.5 lakh and more — much beyond the capacity of most small and marginal farmers in the state,” says Mukherji.

Mukherji and her team surveyed over 900 farmers in over 60 villages,spread across all districts of Bengal,except Darjeeling and South 24 Parganas. Her recommendations,made specifically for districts with alluvial aquifers suggested the removal of the permit system in all blocks where groundwater is sufficient. She also suggested rationalisation of the cost of initial electrification,but at the same time recommended that metered tariffs for use of electricity continue. “Another suggestion was that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act funds should be used for excavation of ponds in districts with alluvial aquifers for increasing groundwater recharge during the monsoon,” she says.

At a meeting of the Global Water Partnership in Colombo last year,she was approached by a member of the Planning Commission for advice on water issues in Bengal. As part of a delegation that advised Mamata Banerjee,Mukherji presented her research. In November last year,in response to her counsel,the water resources ministry changed the Groundwater Act of 2005. “Farmers residing in safe blocks and wanting to install pumps with less than 5 HP would no longer require a permit. Similarly,farmers would have to pay a one-time fixed cost for electrification,around Rs 10,000 or so. They will continue to pay metered tariff,” she says.

Her efforts have won her the first Norman Borlaug award for field research and application. Named after Borlaug,Nobel laureate and the initiator of the Green Revolution in India,the annual award recognises the work of a social scientist under 40 who emulates Borlaug’s scientific innovation. The award,which holds a cash prize of the $10,000,will be given to Mukherji on October 17 in Des Moines,Iowa,at the World Food Prize symposium.

Mukherji is naturally elated. “This is in recognition of my years of field research,where I went against the dominant discourse and argued that intensive groundwater use with proper checks and balances can unleash a second round of the Green Revolution in this poverty-stricken but water-rich state,” she says.