Willingness to pay for tank management through water user associations in Warangal district of Telangana: A double bound contingent valuation approach

Water scarcity has become a serious limiting factor for agricultural sustainability in the world. The myopic overuse of water resources and climate change has been the driving forces of dwindling water resources. Collective action through involvement of community is suggested as one of the measures for effective management of water resources. With the Government of Telangana investing heavily to save its tank irrigation system through its flagship program ‘Mission Kakatiya’, we examine the option of establishing Water User Association for managing the tanks locally. We estimate the willingness to pay using rigorous econometric method of double bound contingent valuation and found that farmers are willing to contribute Rs700/ acre/ year towards managing tanks through water user associations. We also examined the factors influencing farmer’s willingness to pay and found that land owned, the major crop and previous experience of working in water user association affects the farmers willingness to pay. The findings are suggestive that it is a good policy option to involve farmer participation in the management of tanks through water use association in synergy with government efforts to revive the tank irrigation system in Telangana.