Vol. 11, Special Issue 9 (2022)

Author(s):
Yamuna N and Mahantesh R Nayak

Abstract:
Groundwater is the most reliable essential source of fresh water. It is a highly scarce resource and is depleting at a faster rate than ever especially in Karnataka. Groundwater market is one of the water management strategies for efficient and equitable use of scarce water resource and it also gives access to irrigation to those who are not able to invest in bore wells or wells. Multi-stage purposive random sampling technique was used in study for selection of respondents. The sample farmers were categorized into Sellers, Self-users and Buyers based on participation in groundwater market. Collection of the primary data was done using structured, pre-tested schedule. Simple descriptive statistics, percentage and tabular analysis were used in the study. The present study results are compared with earlier one (Nayak, 2007) ^[2] to know what the changes are over the years. Results showed the proportion of different categories of water market participants were almost same in both studies and self-users were of highest proportion compared to others. Self-users and sellers had more land holding than buyers by default because of their capacity to invest. Buyers in present study had owned wells but in earlier they did not. Sellers had more area irrigated per well followed by self-users and buyers. Depth of bore wells which were dug in Period IV is highest in Bagalkot followed by Vijayapur and Belagavi. Widespread failure of wells and increase in cost of drilling, deepening and pumping is due to increasing depth of aquifers.