Technology is not enough: rethinking policy for informal groundwater markets in a changing climate
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Informal groundwater markets, local arrangements where farmers with wells sell surplus water to their neighbors, have become a cornerstone of irrigated agriculture across vast regions of South Asia and other parts of the developing world (Shah 1993 ; Yashodha 2020 ). It is important to clarify that we understand informality not as a binary category, but rather as a spectrum of governance arrangements that range from fully unregulated customary practices to semi-formal structures with community-based rules, and finally to state-sanctioned formal markets with legal property rights and regulatory oversight (Wheeler 2023 ; Hodgson 2016 ). This conceptual framing is crucial, as our policy recommendations do not aim to fully ‘formalize’ these markets in a legal sense, but rather to nudge them toward the more structured end of this spectrum by introducing supportive governance frameworks. For decades, these markets have functioned as a spontaneous, bottom-up response to water scarcity, enabling millions of smallholder farmers to access a resource they otherwise could not afford, thereby boosting food production and rural incomes (Razzaq et al. 2022b ; Mukherji 2007 ). However, these vital socio-economic institutions now stand at a perilous crossroads, simultaneously confronted by two powerful and disruptive technological forces: the rapid proliferation of solar-powered irrigation pumps and the advent of digital water management tools.
Author: Amar Razzaq
Institution: Huanggang Normal University
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,890
OpenAlex ID: W7130817659