How the Commercialisation of Agriculture and Government Policy has led to Ground Water scarcity in Rural Maharashtra – A Qualitative Evaluation of the underlying factors

“Water is at the center of economic and social development; it is vital to maintain health, grow food, manage the environment, and create jobs. Despite water’s importance, over 783 million people in the world are still without access to improved water sources, and even more are without access to consistently safe drinking water” (World Bank). In this context, this report undertakes a qualitative evaluation of the different ways in which commercialization of sugarcane agriculture, backed by uneven political patronage, has stimulated ground water depletion. This explores into how have the politics of sugarcane cultivation promoted the depletion of ground water supply in rural village. The research subsequently identifies the implications of these problems for the local villages and how the principles of good governance can help in resolving some of these issues. The researcher will primarily be dealing the research question from policy perspective of the sugar industry and sustainable ground water management. For analyzing role of the Government of Maharashtra in management of sustainable ground water resources, the researcher will be looking into different government policies for sugar factories, cooperatives and farmers; also to some extent the Ground Water Regulatory Act 1993. The report finds that the water depletion is an incidence of the ‘capture’ theory where the regulatory framework has been used to indiscriminately use power for vested interests. In the backdrop of sugarcane production, the groundwater market in Maharashtra is typically oligopolistic and monopolistic. The large investments in this sector are either privately owned or politically motivated. In most states in India, the hydrological features and water table suffers from an uneven spatial distribution. Only a few water sellers consume the market space both, unethically and inappropriately. Particularly in the sugarcane belt the ground water usage and the agricultural produce are governed by political means. Evidently, the monopolistic environment has led to a situation which is a serious threat to the ground water availability.