Groundwater irrigation reduces overall poverty but increases socioeconomic vulnerability in a semiarid region of southern India.

ABSTRACT: The development of irrigation is generally considered an efficient way to reduce poverty in rural areas, although its impact on the inequality between farmers is more debated. In fact, assessing the impact of water management on different categories of farmers requires resituating it within the different dimensions of the local socio-technical context. We tested this hypothesis in a semi-arid area in Karnataka, South India, where groundwater irrigation was introduced five decades ago. Using the conceptual framework of comparative agriculture, based on farmers' interviews, we built a farm typology, traced the trajectories of farm types over the last decades and assessed their current technical and economic performances. Our results show that the differentiation of farm trajectories since th

SUBMITTER: Fischer C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9132947 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature