Co-management of Electricity and Groundwater:

Gujarat’s Jyotirgram Yojana

Strategic Analyses of India’s NRLPRegional Workshop

Hyderabad, August 29, 2007

Tushaar Shah

Classes of Irrigators in India

Gross revenue &Irrigation cost/ha

20-22 mha

Million ha ofirrigated area

can

als

&

tan

ks

30-32 mha

Ow

n e

lect

ric

pu

mp

s

10-12 mha

Ele

ctri

c p

um

p

pu

rch

ase

12-15mha

Ow

n d

iese

l p

um

p

7-8 mha

Ren

ted

die

sel p

um

p

Own and rented gen-sets

Most diesel pump irrigation is in Eastern

India.

15-18 million Marginal

farmers and share cropper

families

These buy irrigation for food security and to absorb family labour

Distribution of Electric and Diesel Pumps in the Indian Sub continent

• Phase I:1935-1965 struggle for demand creation

• Phase II: 1965-1975 early expansion in electric tubewells

• Phase III: 1975-2004 take-off in GW irrigation under flat tariff

• Phase IV: 1985-98: de-electrification of rural eastern India

• Phase V: 2002-todate- reversal under energy squeeze-immiserizing..

Evolution of South Asia’s Groundwater Economy

Diesel pumps as % of total irrigation pumps

12 m electric and 9 m dieselPumpsets in use. 230 km3 of gw use/year>80-100 m ha served with supplemental irrigation with gw;1 in 4 cultivators has a tubewell; 2 of The remaining 3 buy pump irrigation service

In “electrified” India, the energy-irrigation nexus has become a battle of wits between farmers and ‘reformers’

• GW stress is ridiculously simple to ease. Price power at marginal cost of supply.

• Irrigated area would fall by 15-18 million ha;

• Farmers know this; so they have repeatedly organized to protect irrigation livelihoods; and challenged reforms.

• Electricity Board’s default response: treat agriculture as a residual customer.

• Farmer response:[a] agitate; [b] use capacitors to convert 2-phase power to non-farm users into 3 phase to run motors. Policing on 12 million tubewells costly.

• ADB-World Bank solution: meter tubewells, charge at MC, improve power supply. Farmer suspicious.

• Some CMs got misled, and lost their seats.

• The political fall-out? harakiri

• Unquiet equlibrium; farmers unhappy; electricity industry broke; groundwater under stress.

•

Diesel pumps as % of total

Intelligent Rationing as a 2nd Best Option:IWMI Argument2002

• Embrace electricity subsidy to agriculture as a strategy; managed subsidy versus default subsidy

• Separate power lines to tubewells from non-farm users;

• Control new connections and pump sizes tightly.

• Stick to a strict, pre-announced schedule of power supply; provide quality power to farmers;

• Give up on metering and MC pricing for now; gradually raise flat-tariff to approach average cost of supply;

• Support on-farm storage, reward groundwater recharge, subsidize drip-irrigation;

• Target high-quality power supply aplenty on 30-50 days of peak irrigation demand during the year; cut farm power supply to 4-5 hours/day during the rest of the year; power supply to mimic a high-performing canal irrigation system.

Superior ‘on-off’ pump irrigation economy in terms of potency, precision, and practicality; and a great deal easier to put into operation at a

short notice.

Approaches to Intelligent Electricity Supply Management for Agriculture

• Agronomic Scheduling• Demand-based scheduling• Canal-based scheduling• Zonal roster• Season-adjusted zonal roster

Gujarat’s Pioneering Jyotirgram Yojana

ADB’s Power Sector reform loan of US $350 m suspended forFailure to meter tubewells

In Sept 2003, GoG launched Jyotirgram Yojana that incorporatedAll but one IWMI recommendations.

During 2003-6, rural Gujarat was rewired at a cost of US $ 260 million. Tubewells were put on separate feeders and SDTs.Domestic and non-farm users were put on separate feeders

24*7 3 phase power was assured to domestic and non-farm Connections; 3 phase, continuous, full-voltage power was promised for8 hours daily to tubewells.

Figure 1 a Electricity Network Before Figure 1 b Electricity Network after

Rural Gujarat Rewired under Jyotirgram Yojana

• Before

• Tubewells get 12-13 hours of 3-phase power supply of variable voltage, with fequent tripping, at unknown times mostly during nights

• Flat tariff: Rs 350-500/hp/year

• Massive use of capacitors to convert 1 and 2 phase power to run tubewells

• Non-farm users de-electrified because of capacitors

• Motor burn-out and rewinding the most important part of maintenance cost

• New connections not available.

• After

• Farmers get 8 hours/day of high voltage uninterrupted power at fixed schedules; night in one week, day-time the next

• Flat tariff Rs 850/hp/year

• Capacitors out; impossible

• Non-farm users get 24-hour non-stop single phase power

• Motor burn out at the minimum

• New connections allowed at high costs; now rationed;

Rural power supply environment :before and after JGS

Figure 2 Reduction in Gujarat Government's Electricity subsidies (million US $)

(Source: Patel, Dilip 2007)

786

484547

457384 388

0

200

400

600

800

1000

2001-2 2002-3 2003-4 2004-5 2005-6 2006-7

Electricity subsidies (million US $)

Jyotirgram Scheme’s impact on farm power subsidies

Power supply to agriculture fell from 13 b units in 2000/1

to 9 b units in 2005/6

Groundwater draft

fell by 20-30%

Impact of Jyotirgram Yojana: PerceptionsIWMI collaborative Study

Stakeholder group Positive (+)/Negative (-)

Rural housewives, domestic users +++++Students, teachers, patients, doctors +++++Non-farm trades, shops, cottage industries, rice mills, dairy co-ops, banks, co-operatives

+++++

Pump repair, motor rewinding, tubewell deepening, etc

-----

Tubewell owners: quality and reliability of power supply

+++

Tubewell owners: No. of hours ofpower supply ---Water buyers, landless laborers, tenants -----Groundwater irrigated area ---

Mismatch between power supply and irrigation needs; existing system in which the farmer is frustrated

Irrigation Needs

Power

Supply

Low

Low

High

Wastage of

power and water

Farmer is

frustrated

A

B

A:

B:

A win - win scenario ; power supply is good and reliable, when the irrigation needs are high (Satisfied farmer), and low power supply when irrigation needs are low (Volume of subsidy is controlled)

High

Satisfied

farmer

Volume of subsidy

controlled

The only IWMI recommendation JGS did not adopt..Demand-adjusted power rationing..

JGS’s Lessons

Political master-stroke; by creating massive support-base Among domestic & non-farm rural power users, JGS vanquished Tubewell owners’ power and opposition to reform.

Metering tubewells would have been disastrous, and reduced Irrigation surplus further.

Jyotirgram, especially the improved one with demand-adjusted rationing, has lessons for western and southern states in how to usher in farm power reforms

Improved Jyotirgram offers a way to reverse rural de-electrification inEastern India at a moderate cost. Jyotirgram’s capital cost was 1/3rd

Of GEB’s annual loss in 2001/2.In eastern India, JGS plus priority to marginal farmers in new Tubewell connections has the potential for mimicking equity outcomes ofland reforms.

JGS has taken the fun out of groundwater governance debate. It hasCreated a switch-on/off gw economy on which state has complete control.