Water Technology Centre, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110 012.
The impact of different farm power tariff policies, viz., unit pricing, flat rate tariff and free power supply schemes in terms of farm sizes and pumping capacities is analysed in case of ground water irrigated farms located within the surface irrigation command of Amaravathy river in south India. Impact analysis highlights that any power tariff policy that delinks the price from consumption is bound to introduce differential impact in favour of farms with relatively stronger resource base consisting of more than 2 ha holding size, owning more than one well, wells being deeper than 3S feet with hillh powered irrigation pumps of 7.5 HP and above. Tarlletting the beneficiaries with appropriate indicators of resource base through rational power pricing policies linked with electricity consumption levels is imperative to minimise the inequity in financial as well as economic distribution impact of current power tariff policies and to further facilitate the economic rationality of scarce resource use in the farm sector.
