This book uses resource economics costing approaches incorporating externalities to estimate the returns for the country s irrigation and demonstrates how underestimating the cost of water leads farmers to overestimate profits. The importance of the subject can be judged in light of the fact that India is the largest user of groundwater both for irrigation and for drinking purposes, pumping twice as much as the United States and six times as much as Europe.
Despite water s vital role in ensuring economic security for the nation and farmers alike by supporting more than 70% of food...