Online published on 5 December, 2018.
Widespread arsenic contamination has burdened the lives of affected populations, particularly the rural poor who use wells and tube wells for sourcing drinking, domestic and irrigation water by way of physical, economic and social impacts. Particularly relevant for agricultural production and farmers’ incomes are the impacts in terms of reduced crop yield, lower grain weight, and uptake of arsenic in the crop resulting in arsenic entering the food chain. Such impacts pose serious challenges in the way to achieving Sustainable Development Goals, particularly, goals of ‘No Poverty’ and ‘Life on Land.” In light of institutional developments aimed at increasing the use of groundwater for irrigation in West Bengal which is the worst affected state in India in terms of both magnitude and spread of arsenic contamination, this paper estimates the impact of long-term use of arsenic affected water on farmers’ incomes from agriculture. The paper provides evidence to show that farmers in arsenic affected areas have adopted a cropping pattern that is relatively less sensitive to arsenic impact on crop yield. In the cropping season, where similar crops are grown in arsenic and non-arsenic sample blocks, lower crop yields and higher input costs in arsenic blocks have squeezed net returns of farmers.
