Tankers and Differential Resilience in Horticultural Farming: Evidence from Maharashtra, India

This study analyses differential resilience among horticultural farmers in Maharashtra, India. Based on a primary survey of 290 farmers across four villages in Jalna district, we find that farmers in the region shifted to grape cultivation over the past two decades as it provided a higher and more stable income compared to cotton. The recent years has seen depletion of groundwater table, a common pool resource and the primary source of irrigation for the farmers. In building resilience against groundwater risks, farmers resorted to water imports to satisfy irrigation requirements. With this background, we analyze the factors that affect tanker water use and the returns thereof. Our paper finds that intensity of tanker water use is inversely related to farm size indicating higher intensification of water imports among smallholding farmers. Our production function analysis indicates that both tanker use and expenditure on tanker water has no relation to horticultural production. Given the higher dependence on horticulture among the small and marginal farmers and that these farmers use tanker water extensively with no significant returns to production, our paper posits a case of differential resilience among farmers in the region.