by Archisman Mitra, Marie-Charlotte Buisson Stockholm World Water Week Workshop - Water, Energy, Food and Ecosystem Security 2 September 2014

1. From land reform to pump
energisation: a shift in
agricultural drivers in West Bengal
Archisman Mitra, Marie-Charlotte Buisson
Stockholm World Water Week
Workshop - Water, Energy, Food and Ecosystem Security
2 September 2014
Uniting agriculture and nature for poverty reduction

2. Objective
 Focus on the post land-reform phase of West Bengal
 Literature has started recognizing the importance of the
energy-irrigation nexus in eastern India
Historically its direct quantitative impact measurement is
still missing
 Attempt to understand both the quantitative and qualitative
impacts in the previous 2 decades using district level-data

3. Agricultural history of West Bengal
Before
1980s
• Century long agricultural
stagnation in West Bengal
• Regressive agrarian structure as
culprit
From 1980s
to mid
1990s
• Average annual growth rate of agricultural
sector: 5.4% in the 1980s , 4.56% in the 1990s
• Land reform
• Institutional reform
• Green revolution and diffusion of HYV
• Access to private irrigation
Since 2000s
• Average annual growth rate of agricultural
sector: 2.2% in the 2000s.
• Slow-down in the production of most of the
main crops produced in West Bengal (rice,
wheat, pulses, sugar cane, jute), with the
exception of oil seeds.
Fig 1 - Agricultural Net Domestic Product (factor cost)
in West Bengal, 1980-2011 (at constant price 1980,
1 crore= 10 million)
3
3
Source : Bureau of Applied Economics and Statistics,
Govt. of West Bengal

4. Land reform as driver of growth
• “Operation Barga” launched in West Bengal in 1978
• Researchers identify different reasons why “Operation Barga”
ushered in Green revolution of 1980s –
 Reducing eviction threat of tenants
 Increase bargaining power of tenants
 Better access to institutional loans
• Banerjee, Gertler and Ghatak (2002)
“Operation Barga” increased average rice yields by 20%, 1979-1993

5. Relativizing the impact of land reform
• Operation Barga directly affected a very small proportion of
the cultivated land
 8.2% of net cropped area by 1998
• The 1980s simultaneously saw the Green revolution
spreading across West Bengal
 Diffusion and adoption of HYV seeds, minikits, fertilizers
 Higher irrigation expenditures by Panchayats (local govt.)
 Better road connectivity
• Bardhan and Mukherjee (2012) show that quantitative impact
of land reform is much smaller, when controlled for other
policies specially irrigation.

6. Irrigation situation
Fig 2 - Number of pumps for surface and groundwater irrigation in West Bengal
(Source: Minor irrigation census, CGWB, GoI)

7. Diesel vs Electric pumps
1987-88 10.6
1994-95 16.8
2000-01 15.4
2006-07 20.2
Percentage of electrified pumps
40.0
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
1973
1976
1979
1982
1985
1988
1991
1994
1997
2000
2003
2006
2009
Rs/litre
Price of diesel at current prices (Rs/litre)
Price of diesel at constant 2004-05 prices (Rs/litre)
Diesel prices in West Bengal from 1973 to 2009
Source : Minor irrigation census & WBSEDCL Source : IWMI
• Electric pumps essential for boro cultivation
40.0
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
Rs/litre
 Rising diesel prices, by almost 450% from 1994 to 2006
 High and flat tariff rate for electric pumps (before 2007)
 Incentive for electric Pump owners to sell water – Mukherjee
(2007) estimates that electric pumps irrigated almost thrice
the area irrigated by boro

8. Data
Panel data created from different sources :
Statistical Handbook , West Bengal (different years)
Economic Review , West Bengal (different years)
Annual report of WBSEDCL
Online resources – ICRISAT VDSA database, Indiastat website
Panel consists of :
13 Districts (Excluding Puruliya and Darjeeling)
13 years (1994 -2006)
BAES,
Government of
West Bengal

9. Methodology
푙푛푌푑푡 = 훼푑 + 휑푡 + 훽1. 푙푛퐸푃푑푡 + 훽2. 푙푛푏푎푟푔푎푑푡−1 + 훽3. 푋푑푡 + 휀푑푡
Cumulative
number of
electrified
pumps
(in district d for
year t, in log)
Cumulative
number of
sharecroppers
registered under
Operation Barga
(in district d for
year t-1, in log)
Other time-varying
variables:
Fertilizer use
Rainfall
Canal access
Road-access
Prices of rice
Diesel price
 Boro Area
 Boro Yield
 Rice Yield
 We consider cluster – robust standard errors to ensure that we do not get
false positives due to multi-collinearity

10. Result
Effect of Pump Electrification on Agricultural variables in West Bengal, 1994-2006
log (boro
area)
log (boro
area)
log (boro
yield)
log (boro
yield)
log (rice
yield)
log (rice
yield)
log(Share cropper
registration (lagged))
1.286
(0.179)
0.723
(0.403)
0.589
(0.268)
0.647
(0.236)
-0.0244
(0.96)
-0.00279
(0.996)
log(Cumulative no. of
electrified pumps)
1.615***
(0.000)
1.656***
(0.000)
-0.0435
(0.672)
-0.00821
(0.964)
0.146**
(0.007)
0.222*
(0.015)
Controls No Yes No Yes No Yes
Sample size 169 157 169 157 169 141
Significant and positive effect of pump electrification can be found on area of boro
cultivated and rice yield
Impact on yield of boro is not significant however.
Moreover we could not find any significant impact of Barga registration rate on our
agricultural variables

11. Explanation
• The insignificant result on boro yield and significant and
positive effect on area implies that pump electrification
brought more area under boro cultivation previously which
remained fallow –
Hence yield remained same or slightly worsened
Our estimates show pump electrification (increasing by
18.5% during 1994-2006) caused boro area to rise by
30.6%.
• No effect of land reform – District dummy captures it all
• Positive and significant effect on rice yield shows how
pump electrification and an efficient water market ensures
steady water supply and improves yield

12. Groundwater situation
• 40.1% stage of groundwater
development in 2009, 50.9%
in 2000
• 38 semi-critical blocks in 2009
• 53 critical blocks and 26 semi-critical
blocks in 2000
• Decline of the number of
tube wells in the 2000s
(Minor Irrigation Census)
Uniting agriculture and nature for poverty reduction
Fig 4 – Classification of
groundwater development, 2009
12
5
Source : IWMI-Tata Water Policy Research Highlight, 36.

13. Conclusion
• Easy access to Groundwater irrigation is essential to bring
about a second Green Revolution in West Bengal
• Recent policy change saw number of Electric connections
for irrigation to double in just 5 years
• Ongoing research point out to many shortcomings hidden
by the official data on connections
• Need to be careful about its impact on groundwater – more
research needed